Explosive Combination
by Verthril
Summary: AU Fic: Kindred Souls finding one another in the night, a collision of powers, an explosive beginning. Staring Remy and Jubilee.
1. Thieves in the Night

Disclaimer : Marvel owns the X-men, I'm just borrowing them.   
  
  
Explosive Combination   
  
  
Chapter One : Thieves in the Night 

  
  


He had been following her for the better part of an hour now, for she had beat him to the job he had been hired for. She was good he had to admit, but in the world of thieves, there was honor to be had, and he had a contract to finish. Silently he dropped from the fire escape he had been perched upon while she had checked on the statue. She froze. Remy's mind raced, how could she had heard him. Reaching quickly to his sleeve, he pulled three cards and watched as she turned to face him. 

"Who are you?" Jubilee asked quietly, staring at the lithe figure behind her. 

"Dat not be your concern P'tite. Just give moi de statue and I let you go." Remy said as he stared at her. 

"And if I say no?" Jubilee asked, falling into a fighting stance with her fists readied, the tingle of her gift present as she primed for a fight. 

"Don't say no, P'tite. You good, I admit, but I be better." Remy replied, staring at the girl as she leveled an icy gaze on him, charging the playing cards with his own gift. 

"What's with the funny talk?" Jubilee asked, letting the energy build up within her. 

"Funny talk? Ya got nerve girl. Remy be born 'n raised in N'awlins." Remy fired back in an indignant tone. 

"Ah. So you're Creole, Remy. Well then, if we're on a first name basis, the names Jubilee. And if you don't back off now you'll find out why every day is like the Forth of July for me!" Jubilee yelled, allowing her anger rise to the surface as she prepared for the fight about to break out. 

"Den Remy sorry P'tite. But a man paid a good price for de statue, and Remy don't cut anyone in on de profits." Remy remarked as he sent the charged cards flying at Jubilee, only to see a burst of lights fly out from her firsts, directed towards him and the cards. 

The last thing either theif saw, as both attacks collided, was flash of light, then force striking either, as the resulting explosion engulfed either thief. The explosion ripped though the city block, toppling the condemned apartment building, leaving in its wake a crater with two figures left unconscious. Dust rose in a great cloud, billowing high above the destruction, herald to the destruction.   
  


* * *

  
  


Elsewhere in New York State, at the Westchester Estate of Charles Francis Xavier, Geneticist and Mutant Rights advocate to the world over, and founder of the X-men, an alarm had awoken the mutant hero's from their slumber. 

Henry, Hank, McCoy was the first to arrive to the War Room, leaping into a chair and settling at the computer console. Furiously he began typing away at the keyboard, trying to find out what Cerebro had found. Shorftly after the other X-men joined, with Charles himself last as they took their seats. 

"What has Cerebro found?" Charles asked, looking over to his friend and confidant. 

"A violent explosion has been reported in New York. Mutant signatures were detected as the blast occurred, two of them. Then shortly after only one remained. We must hurry!" Henry exclaimed as he leapt from the seat and was soon followed by the others. 

"May the fates protect you my X-men." Charles remarked somberly as he advanced on the console and inspected the findings.   
  


* * *

  
  


Remy slowly stirred and surveyed the scene, finding nothing but wreckage in the wake of the blast, metal creaked and groaned in the wind, the only thing disturbing the momtary silence. Fire engines sounded off in the distance, growing ever closer, and with them the police would not be far behind. Looking around, he spotted the girl, seemingly unharmed aside from the scratches and singed hair. 

"Well P'tite. Dis thieves honor be telling him dat we best be getting out of here." Remy whispered as he hobbled over to Jubilee and picked her up, finding the worse wound she had to be a broken arm. 

Looking around he soon spotted the prize of the night, nestled safely in Jubilee's backpack. Slinging it over his shoulder, he hobbled off into the dark night, leaving the scene as quietly as he came. 

As the X-men neared, they came to the co-ordinates Cerebro had given them, and the scene below looked as if it were a war zone. An entire city block had been decimated in a blast, yet no fires or any other sign of a bomb could be detected. The fire crews beneath were investigating, looking for anyone who might have been caught in the blast, while the Police were asking residence of the houses three blocks away for their account. 

"I've done a scan of the area, and I can barely detect the signature of one of the mutants Cerebro had detected. A teenaged girl, though what I find odd is that her signature is moving while her mind seems to be unconscious." Jean stated as she relaxed her mind from the use of her powers. 

"What's odd about that? Someone's carrying her." Wolverine remarked as he looked out the window. 

"What is odd about it is that as far as I can detect, she is alone." Jean replied, earning a look of confusion from those aboard. 

"Alright people. We have two mutants, one who is unconscious and may be wounded, and another who is missing. Hank, you can fly the plane and keep us in communication. Rogue and Storm, you two can search in the air. Logan, you are with Jean and myself. We'll need you on the ground for tracking." Scott barked out as he opened the hanger door. Logan and Scott jumped out with Jean, with the three enveloped in a telekinetic bubble that lowered the safely to the ground. Storm and Rogue took to the air. 

Slipping past the rescue crews with the aid of a telepathic stealth, the ground based trio moved in to the center of the blast. Logan looked around at the destruction, his keen scenes picking up details that the rescue crews might have missed. Taking a fistful of dirt, he gave it a sniff and let it slowly drift into the wind. 

"I've got two scents, a man and a girl. Man's scent is mixed with cigarettes and rum. Equal dosage of leather, denim and a bad cologne." Logan remarked as he took another fistful and took another sniff. 

"Girl has suede on her scent, bubblegum and not a hint of any makeup. Also... " Logan began, though taking a pause to take another sniff. 

"I know that scent. It's on both of them. A bar, the owner is a lowlife that plays middleman for a big fish that enjoys collecting rare artifacts. I think we have a set up here. Thieves that were set up to get the same piece." Logan growled out as he took off running. 

"Rogue, Storm. Head due north and follow Logan if you can see him. They got a twenty minute lead on us, but as they might be injured I don't see them running." Scott said as he tapped his communicator and informed his airborne companions. 

With that, Scott and Jean took after their feral companion in pursuit of the only people who might be able to explain the destruction they left behind. 

Ahead of the X-men, Remy made his way along slowly, doing his best not to jostle Jubilee. 

"Ow...where...what..." Jubilee asked as she slowly stirred back to life. 

"Easy der P'tite. Ya have a broken arm and lord knows what else. Remy take care of a little business first, den he take you to de hospital." Remy whispered to her as he made his way to the bar. 

"No! No hospital! They'll send me back! No hospital! Please!" Jubilee cried out frantically. 

"Fine. Remy not take you to de hospital. Remy promise. He take you to a friend of his. Just be quiet." Remy remarked as he looked around, eyeing all the shadows with suspicion. 

"Thanks..." Jubilee replied as she pulled herself closer to Remy. 

Remy finally made his way to the bar, with Jubilee giving neither peep no protest the entire way. The fight had been kicked out of her after the explosion, and the fear of being sent back to the foster parents that the system had given her made her quick to please the man who held her fate in his hands. 

As Remy neared the back entrance of the bar, Jubilee looked up to the steel door. 

"What...why did we come here?" Jubilee asked. 

"Here? You know dis place P'tite?" Remy inquired, looking down to her. 

"Yeah. The guy that hired me is here. Shit! Kestil didn't hire you did he!" Jubilee exclaimed as the door opened. 

"Well, looks like we got us a problem here. I hire the girl to get the statue and the Cajun to steal it from the girl for a fraction of what I promised the girl. System should have worked, 'cept here both of ya are." Kestil remarked as he leveled a gun on the two thieves. 

Remy let out a low growl as he stared at the man, lowering his head as if to shield Jubilee. 

"Take dis P'tite and throw it with de sparks you do when Remy say." Remy whispered to her as he handed her a charged card, charged to linger for an hour, or until it impacted with the power that it so violently reacted with. 

Slowly Remy walked to the wall and placed Jubilee down, receiving no protest from Kestil. 

"Remy have de statue. He give it to you and you let us go, non? Dat sound like a good deal to you?" Remy asked of the man. 

"Sorry, I don't like loose cannons. I know either you or that punk kid there would come back to give me a hassle, or put a bad word out among the thieves of this town. No, I'm afraid I'll just have to shoot you two and have my crew clean it up." Kestil explained as he cocked his pistol. 

"Ah. Remy was afraid you say dat. Der be a reason dey call me Gambit. Cause I always come out on top when de chips be down. Now P'tite!" Remy yelled as he ducked out of the way, only to have in his stead a burst of fireworks and a thrown card fly out. 

Just as Kestil was about to pull the trigger, a plasmoid impacted with the card, and the entire alleyway was engulfed in an explosion. High above Rogue and Storm saw the violent eruption in the alley and flew with haste to the aftermath. Logan and his team joined them shortly after, as the dust began to settle. 

"Sunovagun!" Rogue exclaimed as she dropped out of the air and landed behind Logan. 

"I smell the two mutants, and my old pal Kestil." Logan growled out as he walked into the dust cloud. 

"Winds! Come forth and dispel this cloud!" Storm commanded as she hovered above the alley, forcing a wind to clear away the dust, revealing the debris-ridden alley. 

"Hank! Get that bird over here!" Scott barked out as he tapped his communicator. 

"I am on my way with haste my friend." Hank replied over the comlink. 

Logan walked up to Kestil, finding the man thrown into the back kitchen of the bar, nursing several bruises and burns. The man the moment he saw Logan, pulled his pistol out and fired a shot. Logan stumbled back for a moment, but soon resumed his walk to Kestil. 

"Not happy to see yer Ol' Pal Patch? Can't say I'm happy to see ya either ya low life. Now what's up with those two in the alleyway? Pulling your usual stunts?" Logan asked as he unsheathed his claws with the familiar 'Snikt'. 

"Yeah! Fine! I did! Girl was to go steal the statue and the Cajun was to steal it from her! Though I didn't tell it that way! Gave the girl an hour advance and the Cajun should have got to the place just as she was leaving. Figured he'd relieve it of her and come back to collect his dough! He returned with her too for cripes sake!" Kestil cried out as he tried to back further into the wall. 

"Ya know. Your lucky I'm in a good mood. Otherwise I'd be inclined to show ya how much I hate ya." Logan growled out as he sheathed his claws and walked out of the kitchen. 

Outside he found Jean checking on the girl, while Ororo was checking on the Cajun. 

"Kestil tried to double cross them. Couple of thieves, though they must be mutants too. Lets get outta here before the cops pay us a visit." Logan remarked as he walked to Scott. 

"For once I don't mind you getting ahead of me Logan. Lets move out people!" Scott yelled. 

Jean picked up Jubilee in her arms carefully as she took Scott with her in a telekinetic bubble. Rogue picked up Logan, leaving Storm to carry Remy to the awaiting Blackbird. Once inside, Jean and Ororo rushed to the small med bay, securing the injured Jubilee and Remy before the plane hurtled off from the scene, only to arrive at the mansion some twenty minutes later.   
  


* * *

  
  


Once the plane landed, they found Charles waiting with the latest additions to the X-men standing ready with stretchers. Jonothon Starsmore, Angelo Espinosa, and Clarice Ferguson stood ready, while Bishop was at their side. As their seniors slowly exited the plane, the four were waved on to carry out the wounded. Jean and Ororo stood in the med bay, looking over the unconscious thieves, wondering about them. 

As Bishop walked in, he took a step back at the sight of Jubilee and Gambit. And in that moment, a flash of another time and place passed before his eyes, too fast for him to erect the shields that were needed when a telepath was about to keep stray thoughts in. Jonothon and Jean exchanged worried looks to one another as the flash of memories seeped into their conscious minds, of a world where the X-men were dead, and the girl before them was known to be the last X-man. 

"Bishop, are you alright." Jean inquired in a concerned tone. 

"Yes. Just a ghost of another time." Bishop remarked as he walked over with Angelo and with Jean's aid, carefully placed Jubilee on the stretcher. 

Clarice and Jonothon took the duty of Gambit, and in silence the four carefully carried their charges to the med lab to receive treatment. 

Outside the plane, Jean walked up to Charles and placed a hand on his shoulder. 

"Did you feel that?" Jean asked as she looked down to her mentor. 

"Yes, and already if feels like a faded memory. The girl, Jubilee, last of the X-men in his time and the man he knows as Gambit he feels to be a traitor. This is one of the few glimpses I've seen from Bishop. It must have taken quiet a shock for his shields to fall like that, leaving his thoughts exposed to even the weakest telepath." Charles remarked as he considered the revelation. 

"Should I alert the others?" Jean asked. 

"No. Time is a delicate stream. I felt the confusion in Bishop's mind when he first arrived her. Things were missing and out of place to him. Perhaps the timeline he knows is far different than the one we live in. No, I shall not condemn a man and a child I do not even know on such things." Charles replied as he departed to his office, leaving Jean standing alone in the hanger. 

In the med lab, Hank was had decided to tend to Jubilee's wounds first, her broken arm had been aggravated by the explosion, with the bone fracturing further and piercing the skin. Despite the sedatives she had been administered, as he set the bone she came to life with a scream of pain. A panicked look filled her eyes as she looked around the med lab, and at the strangers who surrounded her. With a glance to Hank she screamed and sent a barrage of fireworks at him. Henry stumbled back, momentarily blinded, cursing. 

~ Easy Gel. ~ Jonothon quietly sent to her, finding it difficult to send even a non-intrusive telepathic message to her. 

"Get away from me! Get away! He said he wouldn't take me to the hospital! He promised!" Jubilee cried out as tears began to stream from her eyes, accented by sparks spitting from her hands. 

"Your not in a hospital. Your safe." Clarice whispered as she stepped behind Angelo for protection. 

"No! I'm in the magic land of Oz! And this just happens to look like an operating room!" Jubilee screamed, and with it a burst of fireworks sprang from her, destroying the sensitive electronics closest to her. 

In the next room, Remy awoke to the commotion, and with a look around the room burst from the bed to the protest of Ororo and Scott. 

"Where is she?" Remy yelled as he looked around the room. 

"Who?" Ororo asked calmly. 

"De P'tite! Where is she? I hear her!" Remy yelled as he looked around for the door. 

"She is in the next room, you shouldn't go in there, it'll only complicate matters!" Scott yelled as Remy ran through the door and into the next room. 

There he found Jubilee screaming at the people around her, crying and panicked. Ducking past the fireworks that were being thrown about, he pulled her to him tightly and tired to calm her. 

"P'tite! It's okay! Remy here! I didn't take you to de hospital! De must have found us! I'm not going ta let dem take you back!" Remy cried out as he fought to break through to the panicked teen. 

As Jubilee sobbed into his chest, the drugs slowly took hold of her again as she fell back to a drug induced slumber. Carefully Remy laid her down on the bed and pulled the covers back up to her. Hank quietly walked up, and with a nod from Remy, continued where he had been interrupted, setting the bone and tending to the wound. Waving over Angelo, he then put a splint on her arm, preventing any further injury. 

"That will have to suffice until that wound is healed enough for a proper cast." Hank remarked as Remy settled down in the chair. 

"I can have a cot and blanket brought in if you wish." Hank replied, waving out the bystanders that were no longer needed. 

"Dat would be appreciated homme. You t'ink you could get Remy a bite to eat too? Had dinner plans with a tre belle fille, but de be off now." Remy asked, only to receive a gentle nod form Hank. 

"Anything in particular?" Hank asked. 

"Non, be too tired to t'ink what I want." Remy replied. 

"Fine. I'll have Rogue go see what we have in the kitchen while Ororo can get you a cot and blanket." Hank replied, sending the order though the comlink. 

Minutes later Rogue and Ororo entered with a tray of food, and the cot and blankets. Remy ate while the cot was set up, and Rogue admired the Cajun from the doorway. After the meal had been had, Remy climbed into the cot and was soon asleep after the exhaustion of the day. 

"Sure is a fine lookin' thang." Rogue remarked as she left with Ororo. 

"Indeed." Ororo replied, though none the bit interested as she had Logan to warm her bed. 

And it was to bed that most were headed, after being awoken in the midnight hours from an alarm Cerebro had called, leaving the questions to the morning when their guests could have found rest for the night.   
  
  
  
  
  
Go to the next chapter...   
  
  



	2. Vanishing act

Disclaimer : Marvel owns the X-men, I'm just borrowing them.   
  
  
Explosive Combination   
  
  
Chapter Two : Vanishing Act 

  
  


Jubilee slowly awoke from her slumber, finding herself on a warm bed and dressed in a hospital nightgown. The room itself was illuminated by the soft glow of the instrument panels, leaving it feeling hostile and foreboding. Looking to her arm, she found it in a splint with a bandage wrapped about her arm. Pain surged through her arm as she lifted it from the bed, causing her to grit her teeth as she let out a hiss. Steeling herself against the pain she slid out of the bed and plucked the IV from her arm, holding a flap of the nightgown over the puncture in her hand. On a table she could see her clothing and suede jacket, and yet another table held a few medical supplies. Taking what she needed of either, she found herself to the bathroom and got dressed after tending to the pinhole in her hand from the IV drip. 

Quietly she left the bathroom and headed for the door, giving a glance back to the room. To her surprise she found the man known as Remy on a cot beside her bed, and she now found out how lucky she had been at deciding to slide off the side she had. Indecision gripped her as she stared at his sleeping form. He had taken care of her after their fight, and protected her from Kestil. He had too promised not to take her to a hospital, promising not to let anyone take her back to her foster parents. She couldn't understand why he gave a damn about her, but she knew if she was to get away from here that she couldn't afford the luxury of finding out. Letting a small sigh drift into the silence of the room, she made her way to a desk in the lab and jotted down a quick note, with a number of a place she hung out at. Turning to leave, she cast one last glance back at Remy and then exited quietly. 

Remy listened as she quietly stalked about the room, collecting her meager belongings and getting dressed. Pretending to sleep, he gave her the space she needed, though he knew she would need his help getting out of this place. Waiting until she left the lab, he rose from the cot and looked about the room. To his surprise a note sat squarely on a desk in the corner. Walking over, he picked it up and grinned. As he quietly followed her, Remy pocketed the note incase she somehow eluded his pursuit. Looking ahead, he could see her petite form in the darkness, hobbling along slowly. Frowning, he hoped her broken arm wasn't causing her too much pain, and he reminded himself to take her to his friend. 

Jubilee cast a glance back down the hallway, an unnerving presence lurking behind her. In the dark gloom that filled the corridor nothing stood out against the shadows, and only her own quiet footsteps broke the ambient hum of distant machinery. Shaking off the feeling, she continued on her way, hoping to find a way out of this place before anyone caught her. With each step she fought against the pain of her arm, gently cradling it with her other as she hobbled along. The drugs the doctor had put her on had slowly worn off, though left her mind clouded and her body numb. 

Suddenly the feeling of being watched returned, and as Jubilee spun to face whatever lurked behind her, the sudden exertion left her lightheaded and dazed. Vertigo set in and she felt herself falling, with spots dancing before her eyes as she tumbled to the floor. Gritting her teeth as she braced for the impact with the floor, a shadow from a doorway flashed before her field of vision, strong arms catching her a moment before she collided with the floor. Darkness took over her as her mind drifted, clouded and lost as she fought to stay concious. 

Remy had been watching her carefully, narrowly avoiding her as she cast paranoid glances back on her flight from the med lab. Finally as he neared even closer, staying in the shadows, she spun around too fast and lost her teetering balance, falling to the floor. Darting to her side as he skidded across the floor, catching her at the last possible moment, gently cradled her in his arms, checking over her. Her pulse was strong, though her eyes held a distant look. Slowly she came back, and Remy gave her a smile that almost became lost to the dim illumination of the hallways. She looked up to him with curiousity lingering in her gaze. 

"Why are you following me?" Jubilee whispered, her breathing ragged as she fought against nausea. 

"Remy said he not let dem take you back. If you want to leave tonight, I'll help you." Remy remarked as he gently rose to his feet, setting Jubilee back on her feet. 

Jubilee looked up to him once more, uncertainty lurking in her eyes as she cast an appraising look over him, still cuious of his motives. 

"Why do you care if I go back? Not like I know you or you owe me any favors." Jubilee remarked quietly as she stared into Remy's demon eyes. 

"Lets save de chatter for when we get out of here, non? De Cookie Monster be bound to come looking for you. We want to be long gone by de time dat happens." Remy remarked as he gently put a hand on Jubilee's shoulder, ushering her along as he kept her close to his side. 

"Fine." Jubilee remarked flatly, keeping a grasp on Remy's hand to keep her balance. 

Silently the two thieves crept through the hallways, keeping a watchful eye on the various doorways until they finally came to an elevator. Remy quickly worked away at it, a brief moment later casting a wry grin to Jubilee as the doors opened. Stepping in, they found out that they were in a sub-basement of wherever they had been taken. Hitting the button for the ground floor, the elevator hummed gently as it rose. Finally as the elevator came to a halt, the doors opened with a gentle swish to yet another hallway, though unlike the lower depths with an alien look to them, this hall was of the Victorian era. 

"Well P'tite, dis be getting curious non?. You t'ink de hiding de lower depths for a reason?" Remy inquired softly as he looked down to Jubilee, who only gave a meek nod in return. 

"Lets just get out of here Gumbo. This reminds me of one orphanage I was at to the extreme and it's starting to bug me out." Jubilee remarked with a waver in her voice. 

Remy quietly hushed Jubilee as he knelt down to her side, giving her a gentle hug as he took care not to graze her broken arm. Jubilee only fought for a moment, and then accepted the hug as she rested her chin on Remy's shoulder, finding the hug all too reminiscent of her deceased father. As Remy pulled away, he noticed the unshed tears swimming in the depths of Jubilee's sapphire eyes. 

"C'mon P'tite. Lets get out of here." Remy remarked as he rose to his feet and quietly stepped into the hallway, looking about to ensure none were present. 

Once Remy was sure no one was lurking about, he took Jubilee's good hand and led her to the foyer. He could hear someone off in the kitchen, and a whispered conversation in an office down another hallway. Quietly opening the door, he passed through with Jubilee close behind. Remy gave one last glance inside before he shut the door as quietly as he opened it. Before the two a vast yard stretched out with a gravel driveway leading off to a wrought iron gate. Yet another obstacle before their freedom, though it was not the one he was concerned of. Beyond the gate a vast expanse of trees stretched, and soon both knew they were no longer in New York, but more likely upper New York State. 

"Hey Gumbo, there's a garage over there. Gotta be some wheels inside of it. You any good at boosting a ride?" Jubilee asked as she looked up to Remy. 

"Oui. Good t'inking P'tite. Lets go." Remy said as he gave Jubilee a gentle ruffle of the hair, earning a snort from her. 

As the two entered the garage, they found several vehicles sitting there, amongst the most to Remy's liking being a Harley in the corner. With a sigh he walked over to the Jeep, knowing it to be the best choice with Jubilee's injuries. As the two neared the Jeep, a noise from behind caught both of them off guard. Turning around, they found a tall, muscular African man pointing what appeared to be a pistol at them. 

"Going somewhere LeBeau?" Bishop asked, his voice full of venom. 

"How you know my name, homme?" Remy asked as he took a step in front of Jubilee, hoping protecting her from any shots that might be fired. 

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Bishop remarked as he cast a cold gaze at Remy. 

"Oh? I be finding I can believe many t'ings dese days. Like waking up to find de Cookie Monster playing doctor, and a hidden base under a mansion in upstate New York. Dat was Henry McCoy, non? I see him on de television now and again with Professor Xavier. He run a school in upstate New York. For de gifted. Gifted as in Mutants non? Now you want to know what Remy t'inking now? Remy t'inking dat de X in de X-men dat he too see on de television stand for Xavier." Remy remarked in a low voice, keeping his eyes locked with Bishops as he watched them for any hint of the man's next action. 

Anger drifted into Bishop's gaze as he stared at the man he believed would one day betray the X-men, causing their deaths. Remy saw the anger build, longing to attack, but knew he couldn't move or Jubilee would be exposed to the shot. Bracing himself and putting his faith in the armor that saved his life time and again, he waited as he saw the muscles of Bishop's arm tense. 

"Your not going anywhere LeBeau." Bishop remarked as he charged his plasma pistol, a whine piercing the silence as the cell discharged enough energy for one shot. 

"You going to stop me and de P'tite homme?" Remy inquired, reaching back and taking Jubilee's hand in his own. 

Bishop tensed even more, the confusion of the years seeping back, with the speculations as to the new timeline. This Remy LeBeau obviously now knew where the X-men were, and to let him leave would be to endanger the X-men. Who knows what the thief would do with the information he now held. 

A deep rumble rang out from the shadows past the garage, accented by a 'snikt' as the light from the mansion flashed against six elongated blades. Slowly a short and stout man stalked out of the shadows, hunched over and glaring at Bishop. 

"What'sa matter Bish? Problem with our 'guests' checking out early?" Logan inquired, adding yet another dangerous element to the standoff. 

"Stay out of this Logan, this is none of your concern." Bishop remarked flatly, not taking his eyes off the thief before him. 

"Way I look at it Bish, it became my business the moment Jeannie told 'Ro about yer lil episode in the Blackbird. 'Ro told me ta keep an eye on ya. Now, ya gonna back down or are things gonna get ugly." Logan growled as he readied to attack Bishop. 

Bishop considered the chance for martyrdom, killing the man he held to be the traitor that killed the X-men, but the chance of hurting Jubilee hung heavy on his conscience. Pressing a button on the pistol, a fizzle was heard while small purple snaps of lightning arched from the glowing muzzle. Holstering the pistol, he walked past Logan, and into the darkness of the night, continuing with his evening rounds. Logan then sheathed his claws and walked over to the pair, then tension in his stance eased. 

"Merci." Remy said as he too felt the tension ease, giving Jubilee's hand a reassuring squeeze. 

"S'no problem. Here, these might get ya outta here a lil' faster." Logan replied as he dropped a set of keys into Remy's hand. 

"Many thanks, Logan is it?" Remy asked. 

"Yeah. Take care of the kid. I'll go keep an eye on Bish incase he gets anymore thoughts in that head of his." Logan remarked as he darted off into the shadows, disappearing like a shade in the night. 

"Like, Remy, can we get outta here like yesterday. Before anyone else decides to butt in." Jubilee asked, tugging on Remy's arm as her gaze lingered on the Jeep. 

Remy took a look to her and happily obliged, helping her into the passenger seat and wrapping her up in a blanket he found in the back. Squealing off into the night, he found the gates were opened, and gave silent thanks to the man known as Logan for his help. Before the two a long drive back to New York lay ahead. Looking down to Jubilee, he could see her settling into an uncomfortable position with her splint resting away from the door. Silently he cursed the whole encounter and made a note to visit his friend once he arrived back in New York. 

"Hey Gumbo, find us a decent radio station wouldja?" Jubilee asked as she laid her head down on Remy's lap, having given up fighting with the broken handle to recline the seat. 

Remy pondered what she would consider a decent radio station, and then flipped through the range until he found the most annoying music he could find. 

"Hey! That's my favorite song! How did you know?" Jubilee exclaimed, looking up to Remy in shock. 

"Intuition P'tite. Intuition." Remy remarked, soon realizing that this was going to be a long trip.   
  


* * *

  
  


A lifetime later, and after Remy had caught himself on more than one occasion singing one of the songs that had played on the radio, he pulled the Jeep pulled up to an old house on the outskirts of New York. Looking down to his lap, he found Jubilee fast asleep, looking like an angel. After shutting off the engine, he carefully slid himself out from under her and exited the car. Walking up to the door, he gave a light knock and waited. Moments later a woman cursing a storm could be heard, followed by the sound of someone running down a fight of stairs. 

As the door opened suddenly, Remy found himself standing before a brunette woman in her late twenties. Her hair had been done with one half braided, while the other half was a left straight. Her green eyes shifted from anger, to curiosity, to concern. Looking out to the Jeep, she could notice the blanketed bundle resting on the seat. 

"Remy, what's going on?" The woman asked, taking a step out of the doorway and then running down to the Jeep. 

"Remy need your help. Had an accident last night." Remy explained, catching up with her as she peered in through the window. 

"Who is she?" The woman asked, turning to face Remy with her green eyes filled with curiosity and concern. 

"Runaway and a thief." Remy remarked as he looked down to the slumbering form of Jubilee. 

"What happened Remy?" The woman asked, looking back down to Jubilee. 

"Dat be a long story Claudette. Can we go inside for dat, have you look at her when you ready?" Remy asked, Claudette quickly nodding and running back into the house. 

Remy gave a smile and then turned back to the Jeep, quietly opening the door and then unfastening Jubilee's seatbelt. 

"Come on P'tite. Time to wake up. We here." Remy whispered softly to Jubilee, only to receive a grunt of protest as she clutched at her blanket. 

Remy shook his head and then gently picked up Jubilee, careful of her arm. Walking up to the house, he found Claudette waiting for him. 

"I'll show you to a guest room where you can settle her in. You'll have to sleep on the couch." Claudette whispered. 

"Remy thank you Claudette. He had nowhere else to go, and he promise to make it up to you." Remy whispered back as he followed her to the guest bedroom. 

After gently setting Jubilee on the bed and tucking her in, he watched as Claudette placed a delicate hand on Jubilee's arm. A soft glow encompassed it, and Claudette shook her head violently as the break healed. 

As the glow faded, the arm looked to be in perfect health, while Claudette herself looked as if she was about to cry. Remy took a step to her, only to be waved out of the room as she walked to the door. Outside and after Remy shut the door, Claudette slapped him. Remy looked to her, not shocked by the action, though curious nonetheless. 

"That's for hiding how much of a sweetheart you can be." Claudette hissed, pulling Remy to her bedroom and throwing him onto the bed as she made her way to the bathroom. 

Remy watched as Claudette filled a sink with ice cold water and splashed her face with it until her face became red from the chill. After she had taken in a calming breath, she walked back into the bedroom and sat down next to Remy. 

"So, I be guessing I'm not needing ta tell you what happened now?" Remy asked. 

"No you big softy you don't. I saw everything that was related to that break, including you promising her not to take her to the hospital and promising to take care of her." Claudette whispered back, resting her head against Remy's shoulder as she calmed herself of the emotions that were stirred with the visions she had seen. 

Remy then gently pulled her closer to himself, giving her a gentle kiss on the head as she stared off into a mirror, looking at their reflections. 

"Maybe if you hadn't hid that side of yourself, I wouldn't have thrown you out of my life that night." Claudette mused, glancing up to the demon eyes that stared back at her from the mirror. 

"It be in de past Chere, was young 'n foolish. Still getting over de banishment." Remy replied as he gently checked on the ring held about his neck by a delicate gold chain. 

"So afraid of being hurt again you hid your true self. Like that girl in there is doing. You know I see more than the actions of the injury don't you? I relive it. Dammit Remy, whatever you do, don't let her down like you did me." Claudette whispered, fighting against tears she had swore had been shed for good. 

"Remy promise, Remy promise to you and to her. Be a promise I keep dis time." Remy replied, sliding away from Claudette as he laid down on the bed, taking in a shuddered breath at the memories resurfacing. 

Claudette looked down to the exhaustion that hung about Remy like an aura, and slowly rose from the bed. 

"You can sleep here for today. I've got chores in town I need to attend to. I'll leave the phone off the hook and draw the blinds. Don't answer the door while I'm gone. I don't want anyone thinking your back in my life again." Claudette whispered, earning a nod from Remy as he kicked off his boots and crawled under the covers. 

"Be safe Claudette. Remy sorry for dis." He remarked as he looked to her with true regret in his eyes. 

"Don't be. It let me see a side of you that I never saw before. Maybe in time we can be friends again." Claudette whispered as she gave Remy a gentle smile, slipping from the room and quietly shutting the door. 

Remy's gaze lingered at the door, a thousand regrets came crashing down upon him like a breaking wave. Taking in a calming breath, he fought against the guilt of past mistakes and pulled the comforter over him as he awaited the rest he so direly needed.   
  
  
Go to the next chapter...   
  
  



	3. Partnership

Disclaimer : Marvel owns the X-men, I'm just borrowing them.   
  
  
Explosive Combination   
  
  
Chapter Three : Partnership 

  
  


Remy awoke to the gentle whispers from the room across from his. He couldn't quite hear what was being said, so he quietly got up from his bed and crept to the door. Listening against it, he couldn't hear anyone in the hallway so he opened the door and listened against the door of the guest room. Jubilee seemed to be talking to herself, though what was being said concerned Remy. Opening the door quietly, he looked into the darkened room and saw that Jubilee was still fast asleep, but seemed to be in the grips of a nightmare. Walking up closer to her, he reached out to rouse her from her troubled slumber. 

Jubilee could hear the men walking up the stairs, their heavy footfalls echoing in the hallway. Her parents were pleading with the men, her father begging for his family's lives, promising to pay them anything. They turned deaf ears to his pleads. One of the men told them to get into their bedroom, and then as the door slammed shut Jubilee heard her mother's frantic cry. A loud slap brought silence, and then the first gunshot broke the silence. She knew her father was the first to fall to the men when her mother's panicked scream rang through the air, only to be silenced by another gunshot. As the men left, Jubilee heard them talking once more. Talking on a cell phone as they informed whomever had sent them that the Lee's were dead. 

Quietly Jubilee crept from her bed after the few minutes that seemed like an eternity, possessed by the glimmering hope that her parents might still be alive, and that if she could only call the police or paramedics that she could save them. As she left her room, she looked down the hallway that lead downstairs and saw no one. Then the sound of their front door closing let Jubilee know she was alone. Walking to her parent's bedroom, a trembling hand raised to open the door. The door creaked as she pushed it open, and the sight of her parents lying on the floor in their own blood caused Jubilee's blood to run cold. Slowly she walked to them, calling to them. No reply came. Their pale faces stared back at her, and she knew they were dead. Looking to the floor, she saw a note by her father's foot. 

Creeping ever so slowly to the note, mustering the last of her fleeting courage, she picked up the note and read it. The note spoke of what happened to people who dare move against a name too stained by blood to read. Looking to the names of the people, the Lee's, Jubilee fell to her knees as she gasped for breath. Tears fell from her eyes as sobs wracked her tiny frame. The Lee's in the note were her neighbors; her parents had been killed because the idiots had gotten the wrong address! Murdered in cold blood over a lack of direction! And the only reason she lived now was that the Lee's didn't have any children. Struggling with the revelation, she reached for the phone and dialed with 911. As the operator came on line, Jubilee found she couldn't even muster an explanation, only one last frantic fry before she collapsed and cried her heart out. 

Remy paused for a moment, looking at Jubilee and the pain evident on her face. A pang of sadness caught his heart and left his throat dry. Finally as he reached out to touch Jubilee, she burst to life. 

"Help me!" Jubilee screamed, and then she collapsed to the bed in sobs, locked in the nightmare of her parent's murder. 

Remy sat down on the bed and pulled her into his lap, trying his best to console the girl. As he gently stroked her head, whispering to her, he found she was burning up. She must be delirious. Picking her up, he carried her to the bathroom and placed her on the counter. Turning to the shower, he set the temperature so it would be just cold enough to help cool down the fever, yet not freeze her. Not even bothering with the shower curtain, he picked her up and set her in the tub, sitting her up and keeping her head down from the spray, holding her hand and talking to her throughout the entire ordeal. 

Jubilee sobbed as the cops entered her house, calling out to anyone. Slowly as they came up the stairs, they cried out in the shock of the sight that awaited them. A female officer ran to Jubilee, holstering her weapon as she picked up the crying girl and carried her from the murder scene. Taking her to an awaiting ambulance, they tried to console her to no avail. Then the officer had found the paper clenched in Jubilee's hand, stained in blood and tears. Prying it from her clenched fist, the officer flapped it open to see what it was the girl held. 

Reading the note, she let out a gasp as she radioed in to find out the owners of the house. As she found the truth, she sent and officer to the Lee's next door to protect them. A paramedic wrapped a blanket about Jubilee, while the officer rubbed her to keep her warm against the shock she had fallen to. A crack of thunder broke through and the heavens opened up as the rain began to fall. Looking up from the officer to the sky, Jubilee strained to see a face, foreign to this memory yet familiar somehow. Straining further to recognize the face, the fever dream ended as she looked about and found herself in a shower, soaking wet. 

"Remy…" Jubilee asked weakly. 

"Shhh P'tite. You were delirious. Remy took you to de shower to cool down your fever." Remy whispered, leaning into the spray to give her a hug. 

Jubilee struggled to face Remy, looking into his eyes and seeing the absolute care and concern he held for her. For the first time since her parents murder she felt truly loved and cared for. A new wave of sobs broke her tiny frame as she told Remy of her parents murder, coughs and sputtering wails breaking the dialogue occasionally, with Remy only hugging her tighter as he listened to the horror and pain of a young girl. Reaching blindly for the tap, he turned off the shower and pulled Jubilee out of the tub, wrapping a towel about her as he cradled her. Unbeknownst to the two, in the doorway, Claudette watched with tear-filled eyes as she listened to the story and watched as Remy consoled the girl. Taking in a shuddering breath, she crept away to put the groceries away and make dinner. 

"And every time they found out I was a mutant, they'd send me back to the orphanage. It was like I had the plague or something, they wouldn't come near me. Finally with the last one, I split before they could even find out. Vowed never to go back." Jubilee whispered. 

"Shhh, people fear what dey don't know. Remy not reject you. Non, Remy going to help you like Papa LeBeau did when he found Remy." Remy whispered back, the two both cold and wet but too exhausted to move. 

Jubilee looked up to Remy, her eyes red rimmed and still glistening with unshed tears. 

"You were a street kid?" Jubilee asked, her voice scratchy and tired. 

"Oui. Remy not remember his real parents. Papa LeBeau found Remy when he was a lil kiddie. Brought him to his home, gave Remy a home and a family. Adopted me as his own." Remy whispered back, his voice equally tired for he knew he could never return to that home. 

"Then why do ya sound so sad?" Jubilee asked, noticing the tone of voice when Remy spoke, filled with regrets and a longing. 

Remy looked down to Jubilee, giving her a smile and kissing her on the forehead. 

"Because Remy be banished. Papa LeBeau is de head of de Thieves Guild in Nawlins. Der be another guild. De Guild of Assassins. De two guilds be feuding. Remy fell in love with a daughter of de Assassin Guild. Belladonna. But on de wedding day, her frere challenge Remy to a duel. He not want me marrying his sister. Remy forced to accept, and in de end, Remy killed him. To keep de feud from starting anew, dat de wedding ended, Remy was forced to be banished from Nawlins. Remy can never go home and see his Papa LeBeau or see de home he was given." Remy explained, his voice quivering as he finished, still too painful at the thought of never seeing his adopted father again. 

The tears that glistened in Jubilee's eyes broke free as Remy finished, with her giving a hug with a strength that her body shouldn't have been able to muster. 

"Thanks…" Jubilee whispered. 

"No need P'tite." Remy whispered back. 

"No. I need to. You're the first person to actually care about me since my parent's murder. I've never opened up to anyone. Keeping it all bottled in. It felt good to finally be able to tell someone who gave a damn." Jubilee explained as she pulled away to look Remy in the eyes. 

"Remy promise to take good care of you P'tite." Remy whispered as he pulled her back into a hug, and then picked her up as he stood up. 

"Now, lets get cleaned up. Somet'ing be smelling like a recipe Remy taught Claudette a long time ago. And I be sure you're hungry. Been close ta two days now since we first be meeting." Remy said, earning a smile from Jubilee. 

"Yeah. But, like…who's Claudette and where are we?" Jubilee inquired, only finally now aware of her surroundings. 

"A friend of Remy. She fixed up your arm for you." Remy remarked, and soon Jubilee looked down to her arm that had long since lost the splint in the confusion. 

"Wow. Is she…like us…" Jubilee asked hesitantly. 

"Oui." Remy replied 

"Wow. I can't wait to thank her." Jubilee remarked as Remy carried her to Claudette's room. 

"Remy t'ink you find some clothes you can fit into in here while he go get changed wit some old close dat got left her de night she kicked me out. She be a pack rat fit for New York." Remy remarked, earning a chuckle from Jubilee as the two rummaged for clothing.   
  


* * *

  
  


Claudette watched as the pair walked down the stairs, with Jubilee dressed in some of her clothing. Despite attempts to hide it, she was still visably shaken, her hair damp from the shower and her eyes still glistened with unshed tears. Smiling, she turned back to the television and watched tried her best not to appear to have noticed the. 

"Dinners made on the stove." Claudette remarked from her seat on the sofa, watching the local news coverage of the 'bombings'. 

"Merci Chere." Remy said as he ushered Jubilee into the kitchen, sitting her down at the table as Remy prepared a plate for her. 

"So, like, where do we go from here Remy? Like, all my stuff was in the one building that I saw in ruins on the Television a second ago. Was planning on moving on after the heist, so I packed up and ditched it there so I could leave after dropping it off to Kestil." Jubilee inquired, fiddling with a fork. 

"Well, after dinner, we thank Claudette and go to my apartment. From der, be anyone's bet." Remy said as he ladled a healthy serving of chili onto a plate with rice. 

"Ya know, we still owe that punk Kestil for what he did to us." Jubilee added, stabbing the fork at a napkin. 

"Oui, but dat can wait P'tite. By de way P'tite, how did you know Remy was behind you dat night?" Remy inquired as he handed the plate to Jubilee. 

Jubilee looked up to him for a moment, but then decided to fill her belly first. Remy smiled as he watched her devour the chili and rice. Finally after she had finished, she looked up to him, a smile on her face. 

"You serve me up another plate of that, and I'll tell you." Jubilee remarked, pushing the plate across the table to Remy. 

Remy happily obliged, and then held the plate halfway, giving her a wry grin. 

"Fine. I dunno. I just felt something. Like, in my bones. Felt a tingle on the back of my neck and felt that tingle I get before I use my paffs." Jubilee explained, looking to Remy, giving a smile as he pushed the plate across and leaned back in his chair, watching her devour the second plate. 

"You t'ink mebbe it has somet'ing to do wit how our powers react?" Remy inquired, only to get a shrug from Jubilee. 

"I'd have to hit up the library to find out. Like I did when I found out about my powers. Classified them as Quasiarticulate Plasmoids. It was the best I could figure out." Jubilee explained, earning a smile from Remy. 

"Brains, Beauty 'n de thieving skills. P'tite, you impress Remy." Remy remarked, smiling as he looked down to a blushing Jubilee. 

"Watch out, this Cajun's a sweet talker." Claudette warned as she walked in and leaned against the doorframe. 

"Hey. Thanks times two." Jubilee said as she looked up to Claudette, giving her a big smile. 

"No prob. Just keep out of trouble okay? Don't want ya hurting yourself anymore." Claudette remarked, walking to the stove and fixing herself a bowl of chili and drenching it in cheese. 

"Just tell Gumbo not to throw anymore of those cards at me." Jubilee remarked as she resumed eating her chili, though jerked her head up as she heard a loud slap finding Remy with a red mark on his face and a fuming Claudette glaring at him. 

"You threw your charged cards at her! What were you thinking? She's just a kid!" Claudette screamed, glaring at Remy. 

"Whoa! Time out! For one I'll have you know I'll be sixteen in another month! For two, if he didn't throw his cards first I was going to give his Creole butt a whole face full of paffs!" Jubilee yelled, finding Claudette staring at her in disbelief. 

"Ok, I'm guessing I missed something before your break happened. Care to explain?" Claudette asked, earning a curious look from Jubilee. 

"I was following de P'tite. She beat me to a job Remy was hired to do. When I was 'bout to pickpocket de statue from her, she turned to see me. Neither me nor de P'tite was about to give up de statue, tempers got high, and well…" Remy trailed off. 

"He threw his cards and me and I paffed him good." Jubilee finished. 

"And? What about the explosion I saw?" Claudette asked. 

"It appears when de P'tite's sparks meet with Remy's charged cards, dey don like one another." Remy remarked, earning a nod from Jubilee. 

"Don't like one another. Dude, that's the understatement of the century, we leveled a freaking block!" Jubilee exclaimed. 

"Probably due to the fact that it was all slated for demolition, but cool none the less…" Jubilee added in a mumbled tone as she continued finishing off the chili. 

"Cool? Oh dear me, you two are made for each other." Claudette muttered as she left the kitchen. 

Remy just sat there smiling like the cat that got into a pet store and 'liberated' the canary population, shuffling a deck of cards. After Jubilee finished her chili, she slouched down in her chair and stared to Remy. 

"So, like…what now?" Jubilee asked, giving Remy a curious look as he tapped his nose. 

"What? That some 'Thieves Guild Code' or something?" Jubilee asked, only to receive a gentle shake of Remy's head as he picked up a napkin and reached across to clean a smug of chili from Jubilee's nose. 

"Oh." Jubilee replied giggling. 

"Well, as Remy said dat night, you good girl, but Remy better. Wit Remy to teach you de arts of de Thieving dat de Thieves Guild taught Remy, ya might just become as good as moi." Remy replied. 

"Just so long as we're partners. None of this me Grasshopper, you Master crap." Jubilee replied. 

"But of course P'tite. And you have to show Remy how you got past de security wit'out needing ta disable it girl." Remy added, only to receive a mischievous smile. 

"But of course Grasshopper." Jubilee giggled out, only to receive a grin from Remy. 

"Fine. Lets clean up now t'ough. Got to get to Remy's place but we be bad guests if we come and don't clean up after ourselves." Remy remarked as he got up and walked to the sink, filling it full of water. 

"K, you do the dishes, I'll go clean up the bathroom." Jubilee said, finding anyway to get out of doing dishes, Claudette giving her a smile as she passed her in the living room, Claudette continuing on to the kitchen. 

"You were always the gentleman Mr. LeBeau." Claudette replied, watching as Remy put on an apron. 

"Papa LeBeau din raise me wrong." Remy replied, giving her a charming smile a moment before he started with the dishes. 

"No, Papa LeBeau just raised you to be one of the best thieves out there and melt women's hearts with a smile." Claudette retorted in a playful tone. 

"De best thief. Remy be in a class of his own." He replied. 

"What of your 'partner' up there?" Claudette added. 

"In time she join de class of Remy, but for now she be one o' de best out dere." Remy replied, to which Claudette merely smiled in return, then after closing the distance between herself and Remy, embracing him in a hug. 

"You keep in touch now. You know my number. As I said, maybe we can be friends this time round." Claudette said as she rested her chin on Remy's shoulder, watching as he did the dishes. 

"Remy promise." Remy replied, remembering the last time she held him like this as he did the dishes. 

High above the house, the moon shone in the ebon darkness of night, immaculate white against the velvet sky. The few stars that broke through shone like diamonds, while the riches of New York sat like candy for the taking by the partnership of two kindred souls.   
  
  
Go to the next chapter...   
  



	4. Dinner in Paris?

Disclaimer : Marvel owns the X-men, I'm just borrowing them.   
  
  
Explosive Combination   
  
  
Chapter Four : Dinner in Paris? 

  
  


Jubilee sat cross-legged on the rooftop, her breath even as she meditated. Her conscious mind drifted between being attuned to her surroundings, and lost to the gentle sound of her quiet breaths. She could feel the cool wind blowing against her skin, and the blood coursing through her hands as she sat there. Finally as she felt as if the entire universe was ignoring her unobtrusive presence, she rose and ran for the edge of the building. She gracefully leapt from the edge and spread her arms wide, tearing through the air like a fallen angel. The windowsill came rushing towards her, and with a twist, she landed on the edge with a quiet thud as her suit absorbed the shock of the fall. Looking to the window, she could see the prize sitting on the mantle of the fireplace, quietly calling to her. 

Placing her hand on the pane of glass, it shimmered with all the colours of the rainbow for a moment as Jubilee focused her plasmoids to dance over its surface, the plasma heating it until it melted away, leaving a hole large enough for her to slip through. Walking up to the mantle place, she picked up the ornate jade dragon and placed it in the case she had slung over her shoulder. Looking about the room, she fought the urge to pilfer anymore of the beautiful pieces sitting around. Remy had taught her to quit while she was ahead, and exercising that control, she ran and leapt through the hole in the window, tumbling through the air until she landed on a balcony of an adjacent building. 

Looking back up to the window she had just visited, she could see the light flickering on in the bedroom, and then once more in the living room. Creeping into the shadows of the balcony, she watched as an obese man looked out of the hole in shock, and then ran back into the living room. Quickly she pulled the same trick on the patio window and ran through the living room and unlocked the front door. Running down the stairwell of the building, she ran out to the front and hopped on Remy's awaiting motorcycle. 

"P'tite, I ever tell you how much I love de way you work?" Remy asked, as he gunned the engine and sped off into the night. 

"Only every time I ever come back after a heist only I could have pulled off with what you've shown me." Jubilee replied, wrapping her arms about Remy. 

"Dat sounds about right." Remy remarked as he leaned into a corner, Jubilee molding herself to his form. 

"Y'know Gumbo. I hate having to leave such a trademark like that." Jubilee remarked, nitpicking the finer details of the job. 

"Oui P'tite. But with de connections dis one has, we had to sacrifice finesse for speed." Remy explained, gunning the engine as he sped past a cruiser, the officer intent on his paper. 

"That was a cop Remy." Jubilee remarked, looking back to the cruiser. 

"Oui P'tite. But he be a good friend of Remy. I made sure he be in de area incase anyt'ing happened dat would have de officers rushing to de scene." Remy said as he slowed down as he got onto an onramp and headed out of the city. 

Jubilee smiled and rested her head against Remy's back as the pair raced through the night like they owned it, and few would dare say otherwise. A year had passed since the pair had met on that fateful night in the alley. Remy had taught her the finer points of the art of theft, and the patience she lacked. In return, Jubilee had given Remy the family that they both had lost, as well as a partner he could trust unconditionally. 

"Y'know Remy, it almost feels a shame to have to give this piece up. Its so beautiful." Jubilee mused, checking on the case slung over her shoulder. 

"Oui P'tite. But a contract be a contract, honor in dis business be what keep people coming back to us. Knowing dat we do de job and get it done, dey pay well for dat, knowing dat de not need fear being double-crossed." Remy explained. 

"Yeah, I know. Lets just get this one done, you promised me breakfast in Paris." Jubilee remarked, squeezing Remy tighter as the pair sped down the freeway. 

"Breakfast in Paris, a stop to de Louver after hours. Midnight flight to Turkey." Remy chuckled out. 

"Just so long as I get my fair cut as always, and get to do some shopping before the job. It's my first trip to Paris after all." Jubilee remarked, hugging Remy tightly. 

"But of course." Remy said as he watched for his exit. 

Jubilee rested her head against Remy's back, enjoying the feeling of the wind rushing over them. Before she knew it, they were pulling up to a large mansion that had two men standing out front in suits and radios in their hands. The smaller of the two said something into the radio and soon after, the men were waving them up the stairs. 

Jubilee followed Remy up the stairs, her hands tingling with her gift as she watched the two guards. No matter how many times she had worked for these kinds of people, anyone who could afford armed help made her uneasy. Remy seeing this pulled Jubilee closer to him, giving her a playful ruffle of her hair. 

"Mr. Dawson is ready to see you." The larger of the two said as they neared. 

A butler escorted the two into a den where a rich man sat in a leather chair, enjoying a scotch by the fire. As they entered, his face brightened. 

"Please, have a seat." Mr. Dawson said to them, pointing to the loveseat. 

Jubilee sat down beside Remy, curling her legs up and leaning against him. Remy had relieved her of the case on their trip to the den, and now held it in his lap as he looked across to the man before them. 

"Do ye have de payment?" Remy inquired, his tone going flat and cold as it always did when he did business with men of power. 

"The payment, ah yes. Of course, you can have the girl verify it as my man transfers the funds to your Swiss account." Mr. Dawson remarked as he snapped his finger. 

A man came from the other room, carrying a laptop over to Jubilee. He sat it down on the table before them and typed away for a moment while Jubilee watched. After the transfer was complete, Jubilee checked over the transfer and then worked away at it for a moment. The accountant looked at it again, typing away and turned to Jubilee baffled. 

"What did you do? The money is gone." The accountant inquired. 

"Oh nothing much. Just did a little disappearing trick I know to cover our collective tails." Jubilee remarked, though in truth, only did it to avoid any hackers from stealing their 'hard earned' money. 

"Ah." The accountant remarked as he picked up the laptop and exited. 

"And de other part of de payment?" Remy inquired, looking to Mr. Dawson. 

"The statue first, just a glimpse is all. I trust you to no end Remy, but you know as well as I that in this kind of business, nerves always run high." Mr. Dawson said. 

"But of course." Remy remarked, as he opened the case and revealed the jade dragon. 

The grin that fell across Mr. Dawson's face seemed electric as he eagerly snapped his finger, summoning another servant. This one carried a slim case and walked towards Remy and Jubilee, handing the case to Remy and taking the jade dragon to Mr. Dawson. 

Remy held out the case to Jubilee which had a silk ribbon tied about it. Jubilee looked to Remy curiously, and then took the case. 

"Happy Anniversary P'tite." Remy said as Jubilee undid the bow and opened the case. 

Jubilee stared inside the case, finding sapphire hung by a delicate silver chain, shimmering in the firelight. She looked up to Remy, speechless for a change. 

"Remy, it's beautiful." Jubilee whispered as Remy closed the lid and gingerly took it from her and placed it in his jacket. 

"Remy knew you'd like it. Now c'mon. We must be going if we be catching de plane." Remy said quietly as he got up and looked to Mr. Dawson. 

"By your leave?" Remy asked, remembering his manners. 

"Of course, Joseph, show our guests out. We both have what we want." Mr. Dawson said as he fawned over the statue, admiring every detail. 

"Yes, we both have what we want indeed, oh I wish I could have been there to have seen DeCartre's face as he found it was stolen." Mr. Dawson added as the two left at the escort of the butler. 

Remy and Jubilee were shown the way to the exit and made their way to the bike unhindered. Climbing on, Remy gunned the engine and sped off, intent on making it to the private jet which they had seats on, with their luggage waiting. Jubilee constantly coaxed Remy to speed up, but he decided to stay at a 'reasonable' speed, as he didn't wish for a cop to pull them over. Finally as they pulled into the parking lot, Remy pulled up to a man he had waiting for them. Getting off with Jubilee, he grabbed his saddlebag and handed the keys over to the man. 

"Take care of her homme, and give her a nice tune up while we be gone." Remy remarked to the man, who was climbing onto the bike and throwing on his helmet. 

"Of course Rem my man. You know I'll treat your scoot like she was my own sister." The man replied. 

"Den be de protective older brother, non? A single scratch and Remy not be happy." Remy replied, and soon after the man drove off. 

"Hey Gumbo, metal detectors, your not packing anything are ya?" Jubilee asked, tossing her tool kit to Remy who in turn charged it, destroying any evidence. 

"Only a deck of cards P'tite, where can be de 'arm wit dem?" Remy asked, giving Jubilee a wry grin. 

"With the hands you deal out, positively lethal." Jubilee remarked, pulling her trench coat out of the saddlebag. 

"C'mon P'tite, lets get to de plane now." Remy said as he began walking to the airport terminal. 

"I'm coming, just keep your pants on!" Jubilee shouted as she took off after him. 

The pair walked through the terminal watching as other's waited for their flight. After checking through the security checkpoint, their escort awaited them and they made their way to the plane. Remy and Jubilee took their seats, with Remy ordering a brandy while Jubilee a soda. As the plane took flight, Jubilee looked out the window as New York stretched out before them. With a sigh, Jubilee turned to Remy and snuggled up next to him. 

"Hey Gumbo, do me a favor, wake me when we're just before Paris. I want to see it before we land." Jubilee whispered as she closed her eyes and started to drift off into a light slumber. 

"Of course P'tite." Remy whispered, waving over a flight attendant for a blanket.   
  


* * *

  
  


Some time later, Remy took a peek out the window Paris drawing closer to them. Giving Jubilee a gentle shake, she slowly rose from her slumber and looked around. Remy pointed out the window, and Jubilee instantly remembered why he was to wake her. Turning to the window, she watched as Paris stretched out before her. The sun was just rising off the horizon, and in the early morning, it looked absolutely peaceful. With her request satisfied, Jubilee shut the shade with a quiet thud and snuggled back down with Remy, intent on sleeping through the landing. 

After the plane had set down, and the other passengers started to disembark, Remy gave Jubilee another gentle shake, but this time only received a grunt. 

"P'tite. We be here, you have to wake up now girl." Remy whispered, giving her another gentle shake. 

Slowly Jubilee woke up and looked around the plane, finding it empty. 

"Ugh. I was having a wonderful dream about that cute actor whose name I can't remember right now as my brain doesn't function until it's noon." Jubilee grumbled, climbing out of her seat and stretching. 

"Ah, well 'ow about we cancel breakfast and do dinner in Paris, I be needing to get some sleep too." Remy offered as he rose and stretched too, and then showed Jubilee off of the plane and to the awaiting taxi. 

"Fine by me, though we'll have to get up in time for some shopping first. Mallrat habits never die." Jubilee remarked, climbing into the taxi while Remy helped the driver with their luggage. 

After arriving at the apartment Remy owned, Jubilee immediately ran to her bedroom and resumed her interrupted slumber. Remy gave a chuckle and headed off to the bathroom, intent on a shower and shave before he retired for the daylight hours. As Remy slid into bed in his silk pajamas, which Jubilee laughed at seeing for the first time, he drifted off into a light slumber. Though being back in Paris once more brought back dreams from his youth. The man named Creed, and the job he had been hired to do. Stealing the heart of a woman, who in the end paid with her life for the necklace she owned that Remy and Creed were both after. A choice between an old friend, and a new love. The pain resurfaced, as did the guilt. He awoke from his slumber with a start, jumping out of his bed just as Jubilee was exiting the shower. 

"Chill Gumbo. Just me, ya were having a wicked bad nightmare there, but I didn't want to wake ya." Jubilee said as she stared at him. 

Remy stared at her for a moment, catching his breath. Taking in a calming breath, he gave her his trademark smile as he masked the feelings that had been torn loose by the nightmare, replacing them with the bravado that is all Remy. 

"Oui, just a bad dream P'tite. You getting ready to go shopping?" Remy asked, climbing from the bed and gathering up some eveningwear. 

"You betcha. Gonna put a nice dent on that platinum card of yours that will heal with the next order of business in the evening." Jubilee remarked, walking off to her bedroom to change. 

Remy let a genuine chuckle go. The girl could wear out almost any credit card, though with the two of their skills combined, she always managed to make up for the injury. He still marveled at how she could just walk into any building after psyching herself up, and go in undetected even to the video cameras. About the only thing that would ever give away her presence were pressure plates or door contacts, but she found creative ways around either of those obstacles. Suddenly a crash of glass from Jubilee's room sent a chill down his spine. Running to the room, he kicked down the door and found her in the arms of the torment of his nightmare. 

"Creed!" Remy exclaimed, staring at the blonde haired man. 

"Heya kiddo. See ya've grown up since we last tangled. Even got yerself a new fling do ya?" Creed asked, hefting up Jubilee by the hair, unconscious and with a trickle of blood running from a cut on her forehead. 

"Ya let her go Creed. Dis be between you and me!" Remy yelled, only earning a throaty chuckle from Creed. 

"Yer like a friend o' mine. Always fun ta torment when ya got a frail of his by the throat. Wonder what ya would do if I gutted this one in front of ya?" Creed inquired, raising a clawed hand to Jubilee's stomach. 

Suddenly the whole room erupted into a shower of sparks and streamers of every colour of the rainbow, with Creed letting out a blood curdling roar as he threw Jubilee against the wall as he raised his hands to cover his eyes. Jubilee impacted with a sick thud, and tumbled to the floor in a heap. Remy ran to her side and picked her up, spinning around and facing Creed with several charged shards of glass while blood trickled down his hand. Creed had long since leapt back through the window, his sick demeanor wishing to savor the torment that he had in mind. 

"I kill you if you ever dare come back here! You hear me Creed!" Remy yelled out of the shattered window, red faced rage on his face while his eyes shone with the fires of the infernal depths. 

Falling to his knees, he let the shards drop from his hand, their charge fizzling away as he looked down to Jubilee. Bruises and cuts covered her form, while he could feel that her shoulder was dislocated from the throw. Gritting his teeth, he relocated it as Jubilee burst to life, crying out in pain. Looking up to Remy, he looked as if he had just seen a ghost, while he only cradled her as he stared out the window, his gaze distant and filled with purpose. 

"Remy…who was that…" Jubilee asked in sharp breaths as she fought back against the pain. 

"Old business P'tite. We getting out of here, trust Remy on dis one. No job or shopping spree be worth de trouble dat man bring wit him." Remy remarked, rising to his feet with Jubilee in his arms. 

Walking out into the living area of the apartment, suddenly the door came crashing down and Remy jumped back to an end table, picking up a few playing cards left there and charged them. 

"I kill you dis time Creed! Remy warned you!" Remy yelled as he threw the cards at the door, an explosion tearing apart the frame and bringing down a cloud of plaster and debris. 

From the cloud, a short and stout figure rose and stood his ground. Soon after a tall African man walked through, gun drawn, followed by an African beauty with hair as white as ivory. He recalled these people who he hadn't seen in a year, and the man that stood before him, who had helped him flee from their home that night. 

"Sorry we didn't knock bub. Guessin' since ya know Creed, ya know the game don't allow for pleasantries." Logan remarked, coughing in the cloud of plaster. 

"What you doing here?" Remy asked, looking to them. 

"We were here on business when Logan caught the scent of Creed. Followed it to your apartment LeBeau. Is she alright?" Bishop asked, looking to Jubilee. 

"Not…polite to talk about someone in the…third person…unless you're Remy." Jubilee remarked through short breaths. 

"We must get you to the hospital." Ororo said, and Remy only shook his head. 

"You don remember dat de P'tite don like hospitals?" Remy asked. 

"Oh…of course…my apologies. We can take you to our hotel where Henry can treat you. I don't think you are safe here if Creed is lurking about." Ororo said as she walked over, checking over Jubilee's injuries. 

"Fine. Just so long as we're far away from that freak of nature." Jubilee said, finally catching her breath. 

The trio of X-men soon became joined by Jubilee and Remy as they made their way to an awaiting car with Angelo at the driver's seat. Looking to the pair his comrades emerged with, he let a shocked expression pass over him, recalling the last time he saw them. 

"Dios, what is this? We only see you two after you get beat up?" Angelo asked as they got into the car. 

"Shut up hombre, before I paff ya." Jubilee growled as Remy sat her up and buckled her in. 

"Paff?" Angelo asked, only to have Jubilee raise her palm and put on a display. 

"Paff, scientifically known as Quasiarticulate Plasmoids. Can be as quiet as a few sparks as you see now, or mean enough to knock down a wall, or directed enough to melt glass. Want a demonstration?" Jubilee asked, too pissed off from having her shopping spree canceled to be nice. 

"Eh Chica, you cool by me." Angelo said as he revved the engine, speeding off to the hotel the X-men were staying at. 

The group sat in silence for the rest of the trip, with only Remy casting a glare at Angelo at every failed attempt to miss a pothole, shaking the car and jostling Jubilee. He knew it wasn't the boy's fault, though where his 'P'tite' was concerned; he was the world's most overprotective brother a girl could ask for. From the rooftop, Creed watched as the car drove off, carrying two men he would take much pleasure in tormenting and eviscerating. Giving a snarl, he leapt off into the night, to search for the unwary and unprotected of the city to satisfy the 'glow'.   
  
  
Go to the next chapter...  
  



	5. Nightlife

Disclaimer : Marvel owns the X-men, I'm just borrowing them.   
  
  
Explosive Combination   
  
  
Chapter Five : Night Life 

  
  


"Ow." Jubilee whined as Hank cleaned the cuts on her face. 

"My apologies Ms. Lee." Hank replied as he tried to be gentler with the care he was providing. 

"Ow." Jubilee whined once more as Hank dabbed the cotton swap on the gash on her forehead. 

"Ow! Ow ow ow! You got it in my eye!" Jubilee shrieked as a drop of alcohol ran into her eye. 

"P'tite, let de man do his job." Remy remarked in his best 'big brother' voice that he had learned could gain compliance from Jubilee. 

"But he got it in my eye!" Jubilee protested, holding her fist to her eye and gritting her teeth. 

"And it was an accident, but if he doesn't get does cuts cleaned up, dey might get infected, and we don want dat do we?" Remy asked, guiding Jubilee back to the bed. 

Jubilee cast her best scowl to Remy as she sat down, letting Hank clean and bandage the rest of the cuts with little protest. With a sigh Remy left and joined the others in the anteroom of their hotel suite. 

"How is she?" Ororo inquired, looking up from her cup of tea. 

"Eh? Oh, she be her usual darling self when de doctors and such be concerned." Remy replied, sitting down in a chair and staring out at the street below. 

"In other words protesting the entire way?" Ororo replied with a smirk, having overheard the dispute from the other room. 

Remy gave a nod and then pulled out a pack of cigarettes. Fishing one out, he put it gently to his lips, and was just about to light it as a cough came from across the room. Remy looked up to find Ororo pointing to the balcony. 

"My apologies fair lady." Remy remarked, rising from his seat and giving her a courtly bow before joining Logan and Angelo on the balcony. 

"'Ro kick ya out?" Logan inquired, chewing away on his cigar as he scanned the cityscape. 

"Oui." Remy remarked a moment before he placed his cigarette back his lips, allowing a charge to pass through it but letting all but the tip dissipate as the cigarette began smoldering away with a pop. 

"So, who was that hombre who had you so freaked Senor Logan?" Angelo inquired. 

"Creed, an ol' pal o' mine who can even give me a good beating." Logan replied somberly, earning a whistle of appreciation from Angelo. 

"You should keep better friends then." Angelo remarked, stubbing out his cigarette and walking back into the anteroom. 

"So, how do ya know Creed Cajun?" Logan asked, waiting for a moment alone to inquire. 

"Just old business homme, lets leave it at dat, non?" Remy remarked, taking a long haul off his cigarette. 

"Fine by me, just as long as that old business doesn't come back ta bite ya in yer ass." Logan replied, turning to stare down Remy. 

"De only t'ing dat came back to bite me, was not finishing off what I started. Remy not make dat mistake dey next time, not wit him threatening de P'tite." Remy said in a flat voice, staring off down the street. 

"What's the kids name anyways?" Logan asked, looking back into the hotel and finding Jubilee walking out of the bedroom, looking none to impressed. 

"Jubilee, Jubilation Lee by birth, but you call her dat and you be expecting to get a face full of 'er sparks." Remy replied, giving Jubilee a smile as she walked towards the balcony. 

"My eye hurts, my head hurts, and I didn't get to go shopping. What does that tell you Rem?" Jubilee asked as she walked up to the balcony and leaned against the railing. 

"Dat you want to have Remy help you blow up Creed?" Remy inquired as he cast a wry grin down to Jubilee. 

"Works for me. When are we going to nuke the SOB?" Jubilee asked, looking up to Remy with her one eye squinted shut, puffy and red. 

"When de infernal realms freeze over P'tite." Remy said flatly as he took another haul of his cigarette. 

"Your kidding right?" Jubilee asked, looking to Remy with clear disbelief. 

"As I said P'tite, dat man ain't worth de trouble he bring wit him. Best to get out while we can." Remy said, leaning down beside her. 

"Well don't look now bub, but ya ain't gonna get yer chance to run." Logan remarked as he unsheathed his claws with the familiar 'Snikt'. 

Suddenly a scream pierced the night and Logan leapt from the balcony, grappling a streetlamp and flipping to the ground. Giving a glance to the balcony three floors up, he seemed to be taunting the pair before running off into the night. 

"What's got him spooked?" Jubilee asked a moment before a fierce snarl ripped through the night air, sending a chill down Remy's spine. 

"Creed. C'mon P'tite. Wit him dat close we got no choice but fight." Remy said as he jumped onto the balcony, repeating Logan's descent, with Jubilee following suit. 

The two ran together as the followed the sounds of battle raging, running down the shadowy alleys and side streets until they came face to face with an epic battle of two equally matched opponents. Logan, though smaller, was giving just as much as he was taking, while Creed nimbly ducked out of the way of fatal attacks. Remy pulled out Bo staff and a deck of cards, charging the entire box and hurling all fifty-two at Creed and Logan. Logan, noticing the attack leapt out of the way a moment before Creed was sent flying into an alley. 

"Mind tellin' me the next time ya do that Cajun?" Logan asked as he rolled to his feet and got ready for the next attack. 

"Eh? What was dat about no time for pleasantries mon ami?" Remy asked, twirling his Bo staff as he readied for Creed. 

Suddenly from the shadows, Creed lunged out, slashing Logan down his chest. Logan fell back, but not in time as Creed grabbed a hold of him and threw him into a street lamp, knocking him unconscious. 

"Runt's playtime is over. Time for yours kiddo." Creed snarled as he lunged at Remy, slashing away. 

Remy backed away, deflecting blow after blow with his Bo staff, while Jubilee flanked Creed from the side and let a barrage of pyrotechnics fly with enough power to melt glass. Creed let out a howl of pain as he stalked away, clutching his side as he glared at the girl. Remy took that moment to place a blow to his throat, toppling the feral mutant as he readied for a final strike. 

"Any last words homme?" Remy asked, having awaited this moment from his youth. 

"I...ain't...alone..." Creed gurgled out, gasping for breath. 

Remy spun around to see a shadowy figure creeping out of the alleyway, towards Jubilee. A moment's distraction was all Victor needed as he swept his feet out, knocking Remy to the ground. Leaping onto the fallen thief, Creed looked up to Jubilee, seeing the anger and horror in her eyes as he smashed Remy's head off the pavement. Had he known what anger was to Jubilee, he might not have taken to the taunt, but as he did not, he took much pleasure in watching her face twist as he crawled to his feet, hefting Remy up like a rag doll. 

"Frail's plaything broken?" Creed asked with a sadistic tone to his voice, watching as Mystique grappled Jubilee from behind. 

"Hey!" Jubilee cried out, struggling to get free. 

"Shut up kid. You'll get your turn next." Mystique whispered into her ear as Creed raised a clawed hand to Remy's throat. 

Suddenly all the anger and despair in the world filled Jubilee with a power like she had never known, the fear at loosing the best thing to happen to her since before her parents had been killed, the still festering pain at her parents senseless death, all of it rose to the surface. The anger became incarnate as an explosion ripped through the street, shattering windows and toppling street lamps. Cars were thrown like toys, while the litter on the street burst into flames. The very air became a fireball, climbing high into the sky, leaving behind a void in its stead as a rumble broiled through the night air. Mystique and Creed lay unconscious on the ground as an unnatural wind of air rushed in to fill the void, leaving Remy and Logan gasping for breath as they stirred. Jubilee, weakened and confused, fell to her knees as she stared at Remy.   
  


* * *

  
  


Back in the hotel, Angelo stood with his mouth agape in awe at the fireball that rose into the sky. His cigarette fell to the street below, and then suddenly the shockwave threw him back into the anteroom as an unnatural thunder rolled through the night, shaking and rattling paintings and china. Ororo ran from her chair to the balcony, soon joined by Hank as they stared at the dissipating fireball. 

"By the goddess..." Ororo whispered a moment before she took to the air, flying to the disturbance. 

Angelo ran out in time to have Hank throw him over his shoulder and leap to the ground with the grace his mutation granted him. Moments later the trio found themselves in the center of the explosion, staring at the battered and burned street while their friends and guests rose from the dust. At their feet, Creed and Mystique lay unconscious, the aftermath of a missed battle. At first sight of Logan, Ororo swept low and burst into a run to his side, clutching tight to his still healing body. Remy had taken to sitting with Jubilee, hugging her tight as she stared off into the night, at a lost for the destruction she had wrought. Slowly Hank and Angelo walked to their side. 

"What happened?" Hank inquired, looking down at his charge from moments earlier. 

"Big Badaboom." Jubilee whispered, staring at the scorched and burning wrecks. 

"Dios, did you do this Chica?" Angelo asked, looking down to her. 

"He was going to kill Remy." Jubilee whispered, looking up to Remy's bruised and bloodied face. 

"We should best flee from here. We do not have the proper equipment to restrain those two, though I believe the police might with either of them being unconscious from the blast." Hank remarked as the distant sound of police sirens grew closer. 

Remy rose to his feet and set Jubilee to her feet, though she only stumbled to her knees at the first attempt to walk. 

"Too tired. So tired. Remy, don't ever do that to me again." Jubilee whispered, looking up to Remy with a twinkle in her sapphire eyes. 

"Remy promise he won't let himself get killed P'tite." Remy whispered and he reached down and picked her up. 

Ororo and Logan joined them soon after, while Hank pulled out a remote and summoned the Blackbird. Remy passed Jubilee over to Hank, who in turn climbed up the rope ladder that Bishop had dropped, cradling Jubilee in one of his massive arms. Angelo and Remy followed suit, and Ororo flew up with Logan at her side. Once on board and buckled up, the plane left in a flash, leaving the wreckage to the police and fire crews to attend to.   
  


* * *

  
  


In Westchester New York Bobby Drake watched the radar as his friends and teammates returned home from Paris. Finding it odd that they had arrived home three days sooner than anticipated, he ran from the security room and down to the hanger. As the gangway lowered two new faces greeted him, one looking a little worse for wear with several bandages and bruises marring it. 

"Company?" Bobby inquired, checking for any signs of battle wounds. 

"Yes. Could you arrange from the Professor to be in his office. We shall need to introduce him to our guests." Ororo replied, ushering Jubilee and Remy out of the hanger and to the kitchen. 

Angelo stood next to Bobby, watching the retreating form of Jubilee appreciatively, earning a throaty chuckle from Logan. 

"I'll warn ya now, girls like that are ta be treated with respect or they'll tear it outta yer hide." Logan remarked, recalling past loves of his life, and then giving a glance to his present. 

"Oh? Is that what happened back when Ms. Munroe threw you off the roof?" Angelo asked in a whisper of a voice as he leaned over to Logan, earning a growl from the older man. 

"Watch it bub. Or I'll tear something outta yer hide." Logan remarked, unsheathing a single claw as he pierced Angelo's cigarette pack. 

"Back here smoking age is twenty-one. I'll hold onto these for now." Logan remarked, walking off as he put a cigar to his lips and pocketing the pack of cigarettes. 

Angelo waited until all but Bobby had left, then put the cigar he had stolen from Logan's shirt to his lips. 

"Nimble fingers eh?" Bobby asked, to which Angelo let the spare skin on his fingers and extend. 

Bobby gave a chuckle as he gave Angelo a pat on the back, the two leaving the hanger to find out whom their new guests were. 

After a quick trip to the kitchen, Remy and Jubilee found themselves in an immaculate office with a Victorian era décor. At the desk, Professor Charles Xavier sat, giving a genuine smile at the pair who had paid a visit a year prior. 

"Greetings again. I hope you two are both well." Charles said as he leaned back in his hover chair. 

"Well as anyone who just blew up a block or had their face used as a hammer." Jubilee remarked, toying with a loose thread on the upholstery of the chair she was seated in. 

"Hush P'tite." Remy whispered, turning to face the Professor after earning a scowl from Jubilee. 

"Oui, we be well. De P'tite just bitter dat Creed ruined her first trip to Paris." Remy remarked, doing his best to gauge Xavier. 

"Ah, I see. Well, if you are planning on staying this time, you are more than welcome. I can have the guest rooms readied for you both. But if you wish to leave, too can I arrange transportation." Xavier explained, though truly hoping the mysterious pair before him would stay. 

Remy and Jubilee exchanged glances, and then Jubilee gave a shrug. While the exchanged was made, Xavier made a note of how he could not even grasp a stray thought from Remy, while Jubilee herself was totally invisible to him, and if it hadn't been for her presence there he would have been oblivious to her. Remy turned back to Charles and gave a smile. 

"I t'ink de P'tite wants to stay here for a while. De boy Angelo was telling her about dis place, and she was interested in dis Danger Room he told her about." Remy explained, thankful for being able to ply the boy with cigarettes for information. 

"Ah, of course. If you two do not mind, Hank and myself would love for an opportunity to study your mutations. This is a school first and foremost, set on helping the next generation and whomever needs it with their gifts, learning to cope and master them." Charles explained with the pride of a proud father at what he had founded. 

"Eh? What you t'ink P'tite? Mebe dey can figure out why your sparks don like Remy's charged cards, non?" Remy asked of her, truly curious at finally finding out his own personal mystery. 

"Whatever, so long as it's strictly observational. My eye is still burning from when he got alcohol in it." Jubilee remarked, climbing from her seat and sneaking to the door. 

Outside, Angelo crouched down with his ear to the door, listening with juvenile abandon with Artie and Leech standing behind. Suddenly the door opened, and Angelo tumbled in as Artie and Leech bolted, laughing. 

"When you get yourself up off the rug, you can show me to that Danger Room, I could use a good work out after breakfast. Maybe if you want, I could show you a few things." Jubilee said as she stepped over Angelo and waited for him in the hallway. 

"Eh? Oh, sure Chica. I'll start you off slow as there are some mean scenarios in there that belong to Senor Logan, they get pretty nasty." Angelo remarked as he climbed to his feet and lead Jubilee off. 

"I t'ink de boy just bit off more den he can chew by patronizing de P'tite." Remy chuckled as he looked out the door. 

"Do tell." Charles replied, catching a few stray thoughts from Angelo's head. 

"So, you want to start wit classifying my mutation? De P'tite will be ready and in a better mood after she lets off some steam. She had been looking forward ta Paris for over a month now, Remy going to have to make it up to her later." Remy explained as he rose from his seat. 

"Of course, if you could just follow me I believe Henry shall be more than ready to run a few tests." Charles said as he hovered out from behind his desk and led the way into the depths of the mansion.   
  


* * *

  
  


In another part of the mansion, Bishop stood silent watch over the video system and keeping an eye on LeBeau. The gentle aroma of a cigar caught his noise as he looked back to the doorway, finding Logan leaning against the doorframe, claws extended and carving away at a piece of metal. 

"Evening Logan." Bishop said as he turned his attention back to the cameras. 

"Evening Bish. We ain't gonna have a repeat like last time are we now?" Logan asked in a dangerous tone, sheathing his claws and throwing the scrap metal into a wastebasket. 

"Of course not. I've had much time to collect my thoughts since then. I was still reacting to the shock and based my actions on a future that may no longer be." Bishop explained, while in another part of his mind he worked out contingencies incase that future started to unfurl before his eyes. 

"Just making sure we're on the same page bub. I'd hate ta have ta do something I didn't want ta." Logan remarked as he chewed on his cigar for a moment, and then silently left the security room. 

Bishop looked back to the doorway, knowing full well Logan would carry through with such a threat, and then returned to his silent vigil on the security cameras. A flash of foreboding thoughts ran though his mind, recalling the panicked distress call from Jean Grey. If anything, he had much time to prepare for such a betrayal, if history followed the same path. Jean had said they had known him for years, and yet this Remy LeBeau had just walked back into the X-men's lives after a brief flickering moment a year ago. Looking down to his side arm, he checked the charge. Indeed, time was on his side.   
  
  
Go to the next chapter...   
  
  



	6. Big Badaboom

Disclaimer : Marvel owns the X-men, I'm just borrowing them.   
  
  
Explosive Combination   
  
  
Chapter Six : Big Badaboom 

  
  


Jubilee found herself in a large square room, black with glowing power conduits running about, with various junctions. Angelo had taken a seat in the control booth, keeping a watch over the proceedings and arranging the scenarios. Behind him Artie and Leech had taken to kneeling on a couple chairs so they could watch. 

"So, like, what do you want to start me off with? Powers or no powers?" Jubilee asked, looking up to the booth. 

"Whatever ya feel like Chica." Angelo replied through the intercom. 

"Fine, no powers. Just give me a Bo staff and I'll be good." Jubilee called out, and a moment later she found a wooden Bo staff at her feet. 

Picking it up, she twirled it about, finding the balance. Frowning a little, she wished she had one as nice as Remy's. He had shown her how to use various melee weapons, being as there were times you just couldn't rely on your powers. She had been an apt pupil, mimicking maneuvers that Remy showed her. 

"This will do. So, ready when you are." Jubilee replied, readying herself as she looked about the room. 

Suddenly she found herself in a street, a mob of FOH supporters at one end. Shaking off the disorientation she felt as she suddenly appeared in a city with all the trimmings, including the stench of rotting garbage and various litter, she looked to her opponents. 

"It's a Mutie!" A man yelled as he pointed to Jubilee, who in turn stood unfazed. 

"FOH? Oh do tell me you have better than this." Jubilee remarked as the mob approached. 

The first one got a swipe across the face, sending him toppling to the ground, while with a spin of the staff she slammed it down on another man's wrist as he lunged at her with a knife. Jubilee fell back, with the remaining six men approaching quickly. Breaking into a run, she ran for a light pole, jumping and spinning around as she gained momentum for a swift kick to the face of yet another FOH supporter. As she flipped into a crouch, she looked back to find five men standing. Three men surrounded her, lunging in for a grapple at the last moment. In response, she merely spun her staff around, hitting each man squarely in the face before jumping out of the confining circle. Three left. 

Angelo watched in amazement as she dispatched the FOH supporters with casual ease. While no slouch himself, she seemed to find their attacks more amusing than threatening. Artie and Leech watched avidly, letting out empathic groans as Jubilee leveled a kick square in a supporters nether regions, toppling him as he grabbed for his family jewels. Finally only one man stood standing, drawing a pistol as he leveled his aim at Jubilee. Jubilee only spun the staff in return, lifting up a chain another supporter had dropped, and propelling it at the gun, knocking it out of the man's hand before he could fire. Jumping up, Jubilee dispatched him with a kick to the throat. 

Jubilee looked down to the simulation, finding with the last one dispatched that they all vanished. She hadn't even broken a sweat, and looked up to Angelo mockingly. 

"Oh please tell me you have something more than that, otherwise I'll have to get on that computer and whip up a few scenarios. Find something suiting this time, and I'll go powers with the staff." Jubilee called out. 

Angelo browsed through the directory, looking for something more challenging. He had a feel for her fighting style, and had seen the aftermath of a level of her power that she hadn't known of herself. Sentinels? Nope. Brood? Pass. Ah, here we are, this will do Angelo thought to himself as he selected the scenario. 

Suddenly Jubilee found herself on an old freighter, the vessel rocking gently against the waves. Salt air filled her lungs while the air itself was quite cooler, perhaps a cold October day out at the pier. Fog drifted about in light patches, while off on a hill a lighthouse stood silent watch over the harbor. Suddenly a noise caught her attention as she turned to see a yellow being, looking to be an equal mixture of human and machine in one. 

"Well hello handsome. And what's your name barf-face?" Jubilee asked, trying not to be unsettled by the four faces on the man's chest, all with looks of either despair or anger on them. 

"I am called Harvest. You will succumb to the Phalanx or be terminated carbonate." Harvest intoned, taking a step closer to Jubilee. 

"Oh yeah? Well guess what, I don't care for succumbing to anything other than exhaustion after a shopping spree on Remy's plastic, and I don't terminate easy, so bring it on!" Jubilee yelled, throwing a bolt of focused plasmoids at Harvest, eating away at his chest. 

Harvest fell back, slowly drawing himself back together. Finally as he was once more whole, his arm formed a deadly blade. 

"Thank you Carbonate. That is all I needed to know." Harvest remarked as he lunged at Jubilee, slashing at her. 

Jubilee deflected the blow, redirecting it at the floor of the vessel where the blade tore deep. Spinning the staff around, she slammed the end into the back of Harvest's head, toppling him. Flipping back onto a crate, Jubilee looked to her fallen foe. 

"Give up yet tractor boy?" Jubilee asked, glaring at the man. 

"Hardly." Harvest replied, flipping over and tearing a deep tear in the metal of the floor, propelling shards of metal at Jubilee. 

Jubilee threw a burst of pyrotechnics, deflecting the attack, but opening herself up to another. This time the weapon of choice was a set of pincer hands, clamping down on Jubilee and embedding themselves deeply into the metal of the wall. Jubilee threw a burst of pyrotechnics at his midsection, expecting him to be propelled away with the force she filled the plasmoids with, but only found a sadistic grin on his face. 

"I have compensated for mutant power." Harvest said, drawing the pincers closer and earning a sharp breath from Jubilee as she felt them tighten on her ribs. 

"Compensate for this!" Jubilee screamed as the wall behind her shattered, sending the two toppling into the hold of the ship. 

Jubilee landed on a crate, smashing through it and knocking the wind out of her, while Harvest landed on the floor with a loud smash. Crawling from the crate and clutching her chest, Jubilee looked to Harvest, slowly knitting himself back together after the fall. 

"Impressive Carbonate. Using the environment against me." Harvest said as he rose from the floor, towering over Jubilee. 

"It gets better than that ya borg wanna be!" Jubilee yelled, flipping back and landing by a fuel line she had spotted in her fall. 

Jubilee knocked a valve off the line, sending disel spilling onto the floor of the hold while Jubilee ran up the stairs, seeing the high ground before she ignited it with a paff. The screams from the hold rang through the entire ship as Jubilee made her way to the front of the ship. Just as she was catching her breath, she heard the sound of tearing metal come from behind her. Looking back she saw Harvest rising from the hold, flames flickering from his form while smoke billowed away. 

"Don't you ever die?" Jubilee yelled, looking to the man. 

"The Phalanx is a collective, even if you terminate me another shall come along." Harvest replied, taking a step closer to Jubilee. 

Anger and annoyance rose in Jubilee as she stared at the opponent who wouldn't die. Her paffs were useless against him, and a wooden stick was painfully underpowered. She thought back to the moment she had blown up the entire street, wishing she could do so once more. Fire hadn't even stopped him. What was she to do? Whatever it was, it would have to be caused by her power, not directly so he could compensate for it. Time was growing short as he fought to reform himself, giant spikes extending from his body while blades formed on his hands. That could be painful Jubilee thought. Then suddenly a wry grin and flickering demon eyes appeared in the shadows. 

Charged cards were thrown at Harvest, and Jubilee took her cue as she flipped off the boat and into the water below, firing off pyrotechnics at full strength as she formed a dive into the water, escaping the blast. Remy was teleported out a moment before the blast by Clarice, who had sent him into the simulation as part of Hank's tests. Finding himself back in the control booth at the exact moment the two powers collided, the resulting explosion shook the Danger Room and knocked all in the control booth to their behinds. Climbing back up to the controls, Angelo found the Danger Room had activated an override, canceling the scenario and enveloping Jubilee in a shielding stasis orb, protecting her form the blast. Finally as the dust settled, Jubilee fell on the floor and looked about confused. 

"Hey! Who shut off the program! It was just getting good now that Remy joined in!" Jubilee protested, looking around at the sparking power conduits. 

"Eh? Chica, you and Remy shut it off when you overloaded the safeties!" Angelo yelled back. 

"Oh? Cool!" Jubilee yelled, preening as she walked out and joined the others in the control booth. 

There she found Angelo sitting in a chair, smoking at a cigarette which no one protested to, while Hank was busy looking over the readings taken at the moment the powers collided. Remy pulled Jubilee into a hug, giving her hair a ruffle as he did so. 

"Remy proud of you, ya used what I taught ya with style girl." Remy said, looking down to Jubilee with a smile. 

"Hey, so ya gonna get me one of those nifty Bo staffs ya got?" Jubilee asked giving Remy puppy dog eyes. 

"Mebe later P'tite." Remy replied, ending their hug as he joined Hank by the computer. 

Jubilee walked over to Angelo and sat down beside him. He looked over to her with a look of someone who had just seen a bull elephant run over their dog. 

"So? That the best ya got?" Jubilee asked, her bravado getting the best of her as she admired the quirk of Angelo's lips as a twitch emerged. 

"I'll take that as a no. How about a burger joint around here? I just got my drivers license." Jubilee inquired, in all truth only going through one of Remy's hacker friends to have a real one sent to her in the mail, faking test results and a short driving history. 

"Eh? Oh sure." Angelo remarked as he stubbed out his cigarette and led Jubilee away.   
  


* * *

  
  


Hank was engrossed with the readings, looking at various charts moments before the collision of powers, and then after. Remy looked down, only catching the most basic of the readings, knowing Jubilee to be the true science inclined of the two. Finally Hank looked back to Remy. 

"Oh. My apologies, this is just so very interesting. While you two do not share any blood relation, your powers share a similar characteristic of those related by blood. While those of blood cancel one another, with a negating quirk of physics in either, the two of yours seem to be in an exponential harmony, complimenting one another, each acting as a catalyst for the other." Hank explained, pulling up a diagram as he explained, earning a slight nod from Remy. 

"So what does all dat break down to, homme?" Remy asked. 

"Well, your kinetic ability breaks down the stability of your young friends plasmoids. The energy released by your charge then accelerates the expansion of the plasma as it claws out at the nearby molecules, setting off detonations on the sub-molecular level. I must say I am very thankful it is not on the atomic level or you might have destroyed New York in an atomic explosion. But with the bonds broken on these molecules, the excess energy is unleashed in the form of an explosion." Hank explained to Remy. 

Remy stared at Hank with a blank look on his face, too thankful for the limit of Jubilee's detonations. 

"You mean de P'tite makes de sparks by detonating molecules?" Remy asked. 

"Yes. She detonates the air molecules about her hands, drawing that energy into plasmoids, which she can control. I must say in years to come it shall be interesting to watch how her powers develop. If she were to learn to gain control over matter other than what she has detonated, she could be very powerful, too if she were to learn how to do upon will what she did back in Paris." Hank explained once more, and then turned back to the results. 

Remy slowly shook his head at the revelation, and took this moment to quietly leave, Clarice following on his heels with Artie and Leech on hers. Remy looked back to the teenaged girl following him, along with the two boys. Clarice gave him a smile, and Artie and Leech snuck up behind her as they peeked at him. 

"What was dat t'ing de P'tite was fighting?" Remy asked of her. 

"Oh? That. That was Harvest, a human joining with a collective entity called the Phalanx. A few years back, before Angelo and myself with Jonothon joined the X-men, they had taken to eliminating the next generation of Mutants only to be destroyed by the combined might of the X-men and their splinter groups. Sean and Emma had helped to save us, and in a final fight with Harvest I fractured him, blinking him out of synch." Clarice explained in a somber tone. 

"Blinking?" Remy asked. 

"Yeah. I kinda of blink and stuff teleports. I teleported him out of synch and destroyed him, and almost myself, but Angelo saved me at the last minute. He risked everything to pull me back, endangering himself. He forced me to control it before it got out of control and killed us along with Harvest. He was like a lifeline, an anchor." Clarice explained, her eyes going misty at the memory of Angelo yelling at her not to let go, not to sacrifice herself. 

Remy looked down to Clarice, giving her a smile and brushing away the tear that fell from the girl's eye. He could tell instantly that this girl had a crush on Angelo, but was too shy to tell him. He would have to knock some sense into that boy late, unless Jubilee beat him to that of course. 

"So? You gonna show Remy to his room, non?" Remy asked, taking the girl in arm as he walked on, casting a look back to the boys as they bolted. 

"What is wit dos two?" Remy asked. 

"Oh, Artie and Leech? Emma had then sent to us. Emma Frost, she runs Frost Enterprise. You might have heard of her. Anyways, Artie can't speak and is terribly shy, while Leech had a tough childhood. Artie can project holographic images while Leech dampens mutant powers when he activates his gift." Clarice explained. 

"Dat don tell me why dey running about like lost puppies and running away when I look at dem." Remy remarked. 

"Oh? Well, they're probably plotting something, Bobby and Angelo were a bad influence on them. The last Great Prank War held many victims." Clarice explained, recalling a dual prank the two teams had pulled on her, neither knowing the other hand the same victim. 

"Ah." Remy said as Clarice showed him to his room.   
  


* * *

  
  


On the roof, Ororo sat with Logan and watched as Jubilee sped off in Rogues Miata. Suddenly Rogue flew up behind them, looking at her retreating car. 

"Mah car!" Rogue shrieked as she sped off after them. 

Ororo and Logan exchanged glances, and then looked back to the retreating form of Rogue as she chased after her 'borrowed' car. 

"Kid's got moxy." Logan remarked. 

"Moxy? Oh dear me Logan, please do not tell me you remember a time when that word was in wide use." Ororo replied with a giggle as she stared at her lover. 

"Eh? Remember, no. Feels right, sure." Logan replied, pulling Ororo into a kiss. 

A warm rain fell over the two as Ororo felt herself melt against Logan, oblivious to the world around her and the rain she had caused. Off in the distance Logan could hear Rogue's yelling for Jubilee to put up the canvas top on her convertible. A part of him hoped the two guests would stick around, finding the Cajun a man after his own heart, while the girl sure did liven things up.   
  
  
  
  
  
Go to the next chapter...   
  
  



	7. To Boldly Go

Disclaimer : Marvel owns the X-men, I'm just borrowing them.   
  
  
Explosive Combination   
  
  
Chapter Seven : To Boldy Go 

  
  


Jubilee looked up and gave a quick wave to Rogue as she floored the gas pedal, sending the car lurching forward as the engine roared. Angelo was screaming curses in Spanish as well as clutching to the upholstery for dear life. He had long since wrapped his excess skin around the seat, fastening himself tightly to it as they sped down the country road. For Angelo, cartoon physics applied as his face stretched back and started flapping in the wind, control lost to the sheer panic he was feeling with the maniac he had freely climbed into the stolen car with. 

Jubilee cast a look to Angelo and gave a sigh as she let off the gas, finally as their velocity slowed, she applied the brakes and pulled over to the side of the road she waited for Rogue. Angelo stared off at the road ahead, long since slipping into a slight catatonic state. Rogue soared overhead and then swooped down, picking up her car as she flew back to the mansion. Looking over the door, Jubilee saw that they had to be at least twenty stories into the sky now as Rogue flew back to the mansion. 

"Hey Angelo? You afraid of heights?" Jubilee asked as she looked over to Angelo as he finally drew back to reality. 

"Yeah Chica, why?" Angelo asked, not knowing their situation. 

"Well then, just take a look over the door then." Jubilee said with a devilish grin on her face. 

Angelo shrugged and loved over, letting out a scared yell as he pulled back to the seat, tightening his skins grip on the seat. 

"Yeah, Skunky caught us." Jubilee replied as she turned off the engine and put it in standby, keeping the tunes blaring as they flew back to the mansion.   
  


* * *

  
  


Back at the mansion, Remy was sitting on the front porch with a beer resting on the step, and a cigarette pinched between his fingers. Tilting his head, he looked off to a speck on the horizon, as it grew closer. As it did so, he could swear it was a woman carrying a Miata. Finally as the car grew closer, he could recognize the kind of music that Jubilee enjoyed, as well as the form of Rogue underneath the car as she carried it. Setting the car down gently before the steps, Rogue crawled out and looked into the car, glaring as Jubilee as she lounged in the car listening to a song. 

"Out!" Rogue yelled. 

"Sec. Fav song." Jubilee replied as she turned up the volume. 

With an alarming display of speed and strength, Rogue unbuckled Jubilee and plucked her from her car, while Angelo took this instance to peel himself off the car and jump out. Rogue set Jubilee down and jumped into the car, but paused as she looked to the ignition. 

"Where are mah keys?" Rogue inquired in a flat voice as she looked to Jubilee. 

"Keys? Like what would I need those for?" Jubilee asked as she grinned down to Rogue a moment before she joined Remy on the steps. 

A shrill shriek was heard as Rogue flew out and picked up her car, walking it back into the garage. 

"Her time of the month or something?" Jubilee inquired with a chuckle as she looked to Remy. 

"Eh? Non P'tite, der be some people who don like it too much when you borrow der t'ings. Wit'out de keys. Like sports cars." Remy replied, shaking his head a little as he smiled down to Jubilee. 

"Oh? Wow. Will wonders never cease" Jubilee replied with false shock as she lay down on the steps and looked up to the sky. 

"Hey Rem, what's about the size of a football stadium, shiny, metal, and breaking through the cloud?" Jubilee inquired with the air of a riddle to her voice. 

"Don know P'tite, what?" Remy asked as he took a sip of his beer. 

"Dunno, but if you look up, you'll find out." Jubilee said as she pointed to the sky, and as Remy looked up he spit out his beer. 

"Like, ew. Scuse me while I go have a shower and change now. Oh, go and ask the X-geeks why they got something outta a bad sci-fi movie floating over their house." Jubilee remarked as she got to her feet and walked off.   
  


* * *

  
  


Minutes later Remy found himself in the War Room of the mansion, with the assembled X-men before him. Charles walked in moments later with a regal looking woman at his side, while he was wearing an odd suit himself. Remy cast a curious glance to the man he knew to be crippled from a war injury. Xavier paid him no heed as he walked to the head of the table with a grim look on his face. 

"You may be seated my X-men. We have very important business to discuss." Charles said as he sat down, looking about the room. 

The others sat down, with only Logan and Bishop choosing to stand out of the X-men. Remy chose to leaning against the wall as he smoked a cigarette, looking to the woman as she leveled her gaze about the room. 

"I see you have had some recent additions to your flock my beloved." Lilandra said as she glanced at the younger members of the team, composed of Chamber, Blink, and Skin. 

"Indeed. And the Gentleman off in the corner is Remy LeBeau, a guest for the time being." Charles said as he gestured over to Remy. 

"Allo Chere, mind telling Remy where you come from dat you bring a spaceship on house-calls?" Remy inquired as he looked to Lilandra. 

"My pardons. I am Empress Lilandra of the Shi'ar Empire, an Empire spanning a vast area of space, ruling over numerous sentient life-forms." Lilandra replied as she gave a slight smile to Remy. 

"Ah. Dey X-men keep interesting friends, non?" Remy mused as he looked back to Charles. 

"Indeed, our relationship with the Shi'ar Empire is a thing of pride, though there are more pressing matters to attend to. Empress Lilandra has come to us for our help." Charles remarked as he waited to ensure he had everyone's attention. 

All eyes focused on Charles and Lilandra, while Remy merely watched with a casual glance as he smoked on his cigarette. Off in the distance he could hear the sound of heavy footsteps drawing closer to the room. Charles, hearing this, decided to wait a moment longer. Suddenly Jubilee burst into the room, a towel wrapped about her hair and a scowl on her face. 

"Your out of hot water! Do you have any idea how hard it is to get shampoo out of your hair with cold water!" Jubilee shrieked as she glared at Charles, then tilting her head afterwards. 

"Hmm, probably not. But it's freaking hard! Oh, and your spaceship is double parked." Jubilee finished as she looked to Lilandra before taking a seat. 

Those in the room held expressions of shock, amusement, disbelief, and wide-eyed terror. The wide eyed terror came from Bobby, who had been working with the mansions plumbing during his latest prank, though he had apparently put the delayed shut off for the hot water on the wrong pipe, having aimed for Hank's shower. 

Charles looked up to Lilandra who gave a chuckle at Jubilee's antics. After a moment to regain composure with the sobering thought of the peril her empire faced, she gave a nod to Charles. 

"As I was saying, the Empress has come to us for our help. An Interstellar Civil war has erupted in the Shi'ar galaxy. Supporters of Deathbird, Empress Lilandra's sister, have gathered under her banner and lead a battle to see her as the Empress. In a final act, they have stolen the M,Kraan Crystal, seeking to use its powers to alter fate." Charles explained as all in the room who knew what had just been spoken of looked at him with fear evident. 

"M,Kraan Crystal? Deathbird? I'd like to buy a vowel, Y?" Jubilee asked as she looked to Charles. 

"My dear, the M,Kraan Crystal is a thing of immeasurable power, a nexus of all realities. Those whom can exploit it can affect reality." Hank explained. 

"Oh, so in other words it's not just some regular hunk of rock. Fine. All reality, I guess that even hits home here eh Remy?" Jubilee remarked as she looked back to her partner in crime. 

"Oui P'tite." Remy replied with a nod of his head as he stubbed out his cigarette. 

"K, so we're in. You want us to steal it back or something?" Jubilee inquired, looking to Lilandra. 

"Well, actually that is exactly what we had hoped for." Lilandra replied as she looked down to Charles. 

"Fine, you X-men get me and Remy in, and we'll work on stealing the rock. A little compensation wouldn't be that bad either though, as it's not often, if ever, that Remy and I have worked for free." Jubilee replied as she leaned back in her chair smiling. 

"I'm sure we can compensate you for your help. We shall be leaving now. Dithal, please transport us to the bridge." Lilandra said as a glow surrounded everyone. 

As everyone rematerialized on the bridge of the ship, Jubilee fell onto the ground with a loud thud, while Remy stumbled back as the wall he had been leaning against had vanished. The others had jumped to their feet at the moment of the word 'transport', leaving them in various states of standing up. 

"Little warning next time." Jubilee grumbled as she climbed to her feet. 

"My apologies, but we haven't a moment to waste. The last time the M,Kraan crystal was involved in a plot by my family, the Phoenix force that guards it caused immeasurable destruction." Lilandra replied as she took a seat on the bridge with Charles sitting beside her. 

"De last time? You mean to tell Remy dat dis kind of t'ing has happened before?" Remy asked as he walked up to Lilandra, only to be halted by Imperial guards. 

"I'm afraid so, that is why we must hurry." Lilandra replied as she waved off the guards. 

"Merde. P'tite, when we be done with dis, lets get into a more safe business, like nuclear arms dealing." Remy replied with a hint of sarcasm as he walked over to Jubilee and stood behind her protectively. 

"I'm with you on that one Gumbo. So, like, you going to leave us fighting your war in house coats and T-shirts?" Jubilee asked. 

"Of course not, we will outfit you as you require. Nessas, please escort the X-men and their guests to the guards quarters that they might find proper armor and whatever they might desire in weaponry." Lilandra said, and a guard quickly saluted as he waited for them to follow. 

Jubilee and Remy watched as the X-men dressed in replicas of the costumes they had all grown to love. Shaking her head, she tried to hold back a laugh at Logan with the points rising from his cowl. The only one's who seemed to have any taste were Rogue who was dressed in a skintight forest green cat suit for obvious reasons, Chamber who was dressed in leather with his psonic flame burning strongly, Angelo with a short jacket and pants, and Blink dressed in a simple leather jacket and jeans. 

Remy and Jubilee took to their usual attire, trench coats and their body suits that helped to absorb shocks and absorb various energy weapons while too armored against bullets. Jubilee had been able to emulate the body armor that Remy owned a few months after their meeting, and after acquainting herself with the computer program that created the clothing; she was able to do so once more. A few decks of cards and Bo staffs were also replicated, and Jubilee smiled, as she finally owned a copy of the beloved Bo staff Remy owned. 

"Ready to go to work buddy?" Jubilee asked as she did the last fasten on her boots. 

"Do ya even need to ask P'tite?" Remy replied as he shuffled away at his cards. 

The assembled X-men watched as their guests with appraising glances, breaking off into their collective teams as the ship traveled through space to the wormhole back to their galaxy. The curious looks did not go unnoticed by Remy and Jubilee. 

"So, what's the plan?" Jubilee asked to no one in particular. 

"Well, since Remy and yourself seem intent on the 'theft' aspect of this mission, we shall work to provide and entrance and distraction. Logan, Bishop, Chamber, Rogue. You will be the entrance team. You will guard the entrance and ensure a safe exit for them. Storm, Blink, Angelo and Marrow, you will work on a distraction. Phoenix and Hank, your with me on another distraction." Scott said in a serious tone as his mind worked through the possible threats they would face, for it had been too long since they had last fought against the Shi'ar Empire. 

"So, tell us about dis Deathbird." Remy inquired, as he looked Scott square in the eyes with his own demon eyes. 

"She was once the Empress of the Shi'ar Empire, possess super strength and incredible speed. Razor-sharp wing-spurs, razor sharp talons, and is prone to berserker rages. By no means nice, and rather psychotic." Scott remarked in a 'mater of fact' tone as he looked to Remy. 

"Eh? Dat all, den you haven't seen de P'tite on a sugar high." Remy remarked as he tried to ease the tension in the room created by the younger team members as they listened to the odds they were up against. 

Meanwhile Jubilee was peering out a window of the ship as space folded about them and vanished in an odd glow. 

"Who went to light speed?" Jubilee inquired as she looked back to Scott. 

"No one. We've entered a wormhole, traveling under light speed, though just using a quirk of physics to take a short cut." Scott remarked, earning a glare from Jubilee. 

"Like, I know what a wormhole is 'Scooter'. Ya don't need to patronize me like some little kiddy. Before my parents were killed I was pulling straight A's at Beverly Hill Prep." Jubilee growled a moment before she turned back to the window as the light vanished and normal space stretched out before them. 

Off in the distance a red planet hung in a set of rings, various starships in orbit as they guarded the home of the dissident Imperial forces. Suddenly the lights on the ship shifted to red and began flashing, while an annoying siren rang. 

"Red Alert Mr. Tuvok. We're going in." Jubilee whispered as she stared at the Starships powering up and lurching towards them.   
  
  
  
  
  
Go to the next chapter...   
  
  



	8. Not in Kansas Anymore

Disclaimer : Marvel owns the X-men, I'm just borrowing them.   
  
  
Explosive Combination   
  
  
Chapter Eight : Not in Kansas Anymore 

  
  


They were merely to steal a crystal from Imperial dissidents, though this crystal was far from ordinary. The M,Kraan Crystal is the nexus of all realities, and therefore it is a thing of immense power, and those who can exploit it can affect all reality. Deathbird, sister to the Empress of the Shi'ar Empire, was one who sought such exploitation of this crystal. Thus the Empress in a final attempt to reclaim the crystal sought out the aid of the X-men, and in so, picked up the aid of two of the Earth's best thieves. An adventure and a chance for the ultimate heist drew the attention of the pair; while too did they not wish for the reality they held to, to be altered in any form. Right about now, a change of reality might be a change for the better. 

"Remy, when we get out of this remind me to paint a big black number eight on that geeks bald head!" Jubilee yelled as she ducked from an attack by the rebel force. 

"Eh? Remy will help hold him down P'tite!" Remy yelled back as he threw a barrage of charged rocks at the approaching force, having long since depleted the decks of cards he had brought. 

They were here merely to steal the crystal, not right against an entire army. But fate always seems to hold different plans than the ones we weave for ourselves 

Jubilee fell back and sent a concentrated stream of plasmoids at the ceiling above them, bringing down a rain of stalagmites on a group of men before her, while leaping out of the way before being speared herself. Jumping back, she found herself back to back with her partner; both battle weary and very agitated. Surrounded on all sides, the battle looked grim. 

"So, like, where are those X-geeks eh? Back at the gateway having a coffee break?" Jubilee asked of Remy as she glared at the approaching forces. 

"Dey were told to keep an eye on de door. Ensure we have a way out." Remy replied. 

"Lot of good a way out is when we didn't even get to the damn crystal!" Jubilee yelled, letting her anger build, and with it, the strength of her power. 

"When I say P'tite, Remy duck and you start spinning off as many and as strong of your sparks as ya can girl, you got dat?" Remy asked as he looked at the forces all around him. 

"Fine by me." Jubilee whispered, bringing her rage to the surface as sparks began to sputter from about her hands. 

"Now!" Remy yelled as he dropped to the ground, charging the floor of the cavern they found themselves in. 

Jubilee began to twirl, sending off plasma globules, with the rebels falling back and clutching their eyes. The plasmoids danced in the air, bringing a flickering rainbow of colours to the dank world underneath the desert planet they found themselves on. Remy focused on charging the floor everywhere other than within the ten foot radius he enclosed Jubilee and himself in, and finally as all the sand under the troops feet glowed with kinetic energy, Remy let it discharge, causing the cavern to be filled with an explosion on two fronts, the air and the earth. 

As the dust settled, Remy and Jubilee rose from the earth, very thankful for their armor. Aside from a few bruises and cuts, they were generally fit, whereas those they had faced lay unconscious on the ground under a light layer of debris. 

"Lets now hope that didn't announce our arrival Gumbo." Jubilee whispered as she started down a tunnel. 

Remy gave a serious nod at the thought and took chase after her, the pair keeping to the shadows as they traveled down the winding tunnel.   
  


* * *

  
  


Meanwhile outside the gateway to the old mining facility, the entrance team was caught in a battle for their lives as the local rebels of the planet made their attack. A diversity of the species present in the Shi'ar Empire took up arms, while just as many from those outside the Imperial reaches aided in hopes of gaining the favor of Deathbird. Rogue had made brief contact with Logan, picking up memories and the unique mutation of the man, and she now stood side by side with the feral as they fought the ground troops, both slashing their way through with a set of claws of bone and metal. 

Chamber stood alone on a dune, blasting away all who came at him with his psonic flames, while Bishop stood back to back with the younger teammate as he built up his biocharge from the weapon fire of the forces, content with a plasma pistol in one hand and a plasma rifle in the other as he took out distant threats. 

"Chamber, can you sense if they have made it to the crystal?" Bishop asked of the youth as he took aim and shot down a distant sniper. 

~ Felt them for a brief moment. Caught a flash of a cavern erupting. If it weren't for the bloody odds against us here, I'd say we should help them. ~ Chamber sent back as he unleashed a devastating blast at an armored division nearing, toppling the unit and it's crew. 

"I wonder how Scott and the others are doing with their efforts at the tropical regions at the poles." Bishop inquired as he unleashed a barrage of pistol fire. 

~ Can't be any worse than this mate. ~ Chamber sent back as he threw his arm over Bishop, sending the pair toppling out of the way of a barrage of conventional weapon fire. 

"I hope LeBeau hurry's his Cajun ass up!" Bishop yelled as he climbed to his feet and unleashed return fire at the men who had just shot at them, hitting his desired target squarely with lethal accuracy. 

Down in the midst of the ground troops, Rogue and Logan were a force to be reckoned with as they slashed their way at all who dared oppose them, Logan fueled with his berserker rage and animal instincts, while Rogue's attacks were fueled with sonic speed and incredible strength. The nigh invulnerability was found to be applying to the bone claws she now embraced, and proved a match for the near indestructible nature of the Adamantium laced bones of Logan. When any of the larger of the opponents approached in mechanoid armor, a quick slash with a burst of flight caused the armor to peel away, leaving the alien inside scurrying away in fear. 

"We gotta do this more often Sugah." Rogue called out to Logan as she used a suit of armor as a massive club, sending an approaching force flying off into the desert sands. 

"Anytime darlin'." Logan yelled out as he slashed through melee weapons that the force brought at him, inflicting non-lethal wounds as they tried to flee. 

Then just as suddenly as the forces had been there, they vanished. The X-men looked about with confusion and distrust evident on their faces. Logan gave a sniff to the air, and let out a throaty growl. 

"Something ain't right here. We all know we were just fighting them, and now they're gone. Not even so much as a scent o' 'em." Logan informed in a low voice as he and Rogue regrouped with Bishop and Chamber. 

"That wasn't the energy signature we saw when they teleported in. It is as if they merely vanished." Bishop remarked, looking about the horizon. 

"I say we quit flapping our gums and get down there. I don't like this and I don't like the thought o' two thieves squaring off with that." Logan growled as he ran past the gateway and into the mineshaft, with the others soon following.   
  


* * *

  
  


Back down in the depths, Jubilee and Remy found their way onto a catwalk above a cavernous facility, with in the center a large pink crystal with various machines centered about it. 

"Umm, Remy, how do you steal a crystal the size of a tank?" Jubilee asked as she looked to her partner in crime. 

"I really wish I knew P'tite. But if dey got it here, der be a way to get it out, non?" Remy asked as he looked to Jubilee, giving her his trademark grin. 

"Well, we might as well get a little closer and find out what they're up to with it." Jubilee said as she started to slink across the catwalk until they were above a rather ferocious looking woman and a group of scientists of various races. 

"Is the telepath ready?" Deathbird inquired as she looked to the group before her. 

"Yes, we have amplified her powers and she is quiet ready to affect the reality we have come to know. Though with the power of the crystal this close to us, and the advance technology we have embedded in this room, it shall shield us from the shifts in the continuum by keeping us out of phase with time." The alien scientist replied as he waved to an aid. 

Jubilee and Remy cast a look to one another and then looked down to the aid who was helping a woman out to the center of the machine that housed the crystal. She took a seat and a helmet was lowered over her head. 

"How amusing that we use the technology of the vaunted X-men who Lilandra has brought here in an attempt to stop this. With that Cerebro unit amplifying her powers beyond that of even Xavier himself, no one who we affect will be able to stop us." Deathbird mused as she signaled for it to begin. 

"Indeed, it was genius on your part to think of using a telepath to affect the course of this reality with the crystal, directing the telepathic control through the crystal and into the past, altering the course of this reality based on our causality equations." The scientist added as he gave a courtly bow to Deathbird. 

"To the once, future, and proper Empress of the Shi'ar Empire!" A chorus of voices rang out. 

"Oh shit. Oh shit oh shit oh shit." Jubilee whined as she glanced to Remy. 

"Oui P'tite. Dis be bigger den any theft. De mad lady is going to change de course of history and place her self on de throne wit'out a single battle." Remy replied. 

"Um, Remy, if that thing makes her more powerful than cue ball, doesn't that mean she'll be able to detect us?" Jubilee inquired suddenly, looking down as the helmet was placed on the woman's head. 

As the generators in the room came to life, energy crackled and the machinery whirled to life. A grunted cry came from the telepath as the power coursed through her mind, while her body fought to rein control of it. Beams of light were shot into the crystal, disappearing into the nexus. Suddenly the telepath looked up to the catwalk where Jubilee and Remy were crouched in the shadows, and a knowing look passed to them. 

"Intruders!" The telepath cried out, and Remy and Jubilee leapt into action as the jumped to the center of the room, their armor taking the brunt of the fall. 

"Hey Remy, Nexus of Realities, a center or focal point. You want to find out wants in the center of that damn thing?" Jubilee asked as she backed towards the crystal, casting a glance back and lashing out at a guard with her Bo staff. 

"Beats de odds of dis fight P'tite!" Remy cried out as he noticed several more platoons of reinforcements charging down the tunnels. 

"Exit stage right!" Jubilee cried as she bolted and ran up to the crystal, tentatively reaching towards it. 

"Oh man I hope that wasn't just some sugar induced theory I had!" Jubilee cried a moment before her hand reached through a point where a beam of light entered the crystal. 

Remy seeing this charged and pushed the pair through, throwing his charged Bo staff at the machinery surrounding the crystal and destroying it. Deathbird let out a shrill scream ring out above the room as her planes were ruined, while the telepaths voice echoed in all the minds of those present on the planet as it became lost to the astral plane.   
  


* * *

  
  
  
The X-men burst into the room just at that moment, and paused at the anguish and pain the woman felt as she passed on. Moments after they had recovered, they looked about the room and saw it filled with Imperial dissidents, and one rather familiar and former Shi'ar Empress. 

"While your friends might have stopped me and escaped into the crystal, that will not stop me from my having my vengeance! Kill them!" Deathbird screamed as she led a charge against the X-men. 

"Rogue! You take on Deathbird! You're the only one who is a match for her! Chamber, your with me on holding them back! Logan, do whatever you damn well please as I sure don't give a damn!" Bishop roared as he unleashed a bioblast at the advancing horde, accented by a psonic blast from Chamber. 

Rogue leapt into the air and flew full speed at Deathbird, slamming claws and knuckles into the Shi'ar woman's chest, impaling her into the wall. Deathbird in return gave a swift punch to Rogue and set the woman flying back. 

"You have the warrior's claws. I must say I don't recognize you girl. But you are no match for me! I was the mentor to Gladiator! The Imperial Guardian of the Empress!" Deathbird cried out as she slashed at Rogue with her talons, drawing a faint trickle of blood from the nigh invulnerable skin, though the wounds healed shortly after. 

"Lady! Ah don't really give a damn who you said ya trained! And the name's Rogue! Don't ya forget it now, Sugah!" Rogue yelled as she threw a punch at Deathbird, sending the woman flying through the wall and tumbling into the void. 

The battle raged on, but soon the X-men prevailed over the rebel forces, forcing them to retreat. Huddled off in a corner of the room, a group of the scientists stood with fear evident in their eyes as Logan and Rogue neared. Bishop came up shortly after, while Chamber was the last to join. 

"Tell us what you were doing." Bishop remarked in a cold voice as he leveled his plasma pistol at the group. 

"Never!" A scientist yelled, only to be hushed by his associates. 

"Deathbird was to be the Empress once more, we were going to use the crystal to alter reality. To change the outcome of the battle that dethroned her. We had created a duplicate of Cerebro, attuned to the mind of our telepath, Siliscorn. But as we were about to proceed, the two shadow lurkers came forth! They had eluded detection until the unit came onto Siliscorn's head, amplifying her powers to dangerous levels. How they eluded us for so long is unknown! But they destroyed the machinery a moment after they fled inside the heart of the crystal itself!" A man explained, all too willing to trade off the information for his life. 

The group of X-men exchanged glances and looked towards the M,Kraan Crystal, now very much larger than the last time they recalled seeing it. Walking up to it, Chamber ran a hand across its surface, finding no way in. 

~ Care to tell me again 'ow they got inside a solid crystal bloke? ~ Chamber sent to the compliant scientist, who had gained the more docile of the lot as supporters to aiding their captors. 

"I am afraid I do not know. We all were taken aback when the youngling placed her hand through it, and then her man friend charged with the two entering, while throwing a shaft of metal out that exploded, destroying the housing." An alien scientist explained. 

"So, how do we get them back out?" Bishop inquired. 

"I'm afraid that is entirely up to them to figure out." Yet another scientist replied. 

Chamber looked back to the crystal, at a loss for what he stood before. The Nexus of all Realities, and two people had just become lost to it. 

"Well, I don't think standing around here and gabbing is gonna be getting us anywhere. Lets get this hunk of junk outta here, and get outta this hot seat Lilandra placed us in. We got the crystal, end o' mission." Logan said as he walked up to Bishop. 

"I agree. Bishop to Lilandra, we have secured the crystal, though not in the manner that we had anticipated, can you transport us out of here?" Bishop asked over the comlink. 

"We await your all clear Bishop." The Empress's voice came over the comlink. 

Bishop cast a glance to the scientists who had been helpful to this point. They seemed stressed and longing for their freedom. Holstering his pistol, he raised a hand to the lead scientist. 

"Do you long to join us and help us free out friends?" Bishop asked. 

The scientists looked to one another and then nodded as the lead scientist took Bishops hand and aid to his feet. 

"Empress, we have Logan, Rogue, Chamber and myself to transport along with four scientists who wish to switch sides." Bishop informed over the comlink. 

"Very well. We shall see you momentarily." The voice of Lilandra came back over the link. 

After a shift of light and scenery, the entrance team found themselves standing in a loading bay with the Crystal and the team of Scientists, while off further away the other teams stood. 

"Where are Remy and Jubilee?" Scott asked as he joined them. 

Rouge merely pointed to the crystal with her claws, letting out a sigh as she could feel the absorbed mutation wearing off. With a scream, the claws fell away while her flesh knit itself back together. 

"Never ya mind what ah said about doing that again Logan." Rogue remarked as she rubbed her hands, wincing in pain. 

"What did she mean when she pointed to the crystal?" Scott inquired. 

"They're in it." Bishop said flatly, earning a gasp from all.   
  


* * *

  
  


Inside the Crystal, Remy and Jubilee looked to one another and then out at the deserted city before them. Dead silence stood oppressively all about them, leaving the very sound of their own breath like the beating of a distant drum. Then the silence was broken as a chuckle carried on behind them. Twirling around, they found themselves standing before a short purple main with bluish white hair, wearing a purple and black one piece and smoking a cigar. 

"Well if it isn't Remy LeBeau. Long time no see." Jahf said as he raised the cigar to his lips and took a long haul, blowing smoke rings afterwards. 

"How do you know my name mon ami?" Remy asked as he looked down to the stout figure. 

"Cause you were the fool who saved the multiverse and all existence the last time danger threatened this crystal. I must say, you nipped it in the bud this time. Deathbird would have brought about the Age of Apocalypse all over again, and frankly I'm sick of reruns." Jahf remarked as he lead the two on a tour of the deserted city. 

"Eh? Saved de multiverse?" Remy inquired as he looked down to Jahf, who merely held a cigar out to Remy. 

"Sit down, have a smoke, relax. You got all the time in the world, in all the worlds, and yet you don't have any time whatsoever. Ah I do love paradoxes." Jahf said as he led the pair out onto what looked to be a sidewalk café, complete with three coffees of their owners choice. 

"Yo Rem, something tells me we're not in Kansas anymore." Jubilee remarked as she took a seat and stirred her French Vanilla cappuccino.   
  
  
Go to the next chapter...   
  
  



	9. Coffee with Jahf

Disclaimer : Marvel owns the X-men, I'm just borrowing them.   
  
  
Explosive Combination   
  
  
Chapter Nine : Coffee With Jahf 

  
  


The X-men gathered around the Crystal, looking at it in disbelief. Many years ago the senior members had ventured forth inside the depths of the Crystal when a crack appeared. The Phoenix forced had repaired that crack before the Crystal could have devoured all. Now once more others had ventured forth into the Crystal, yet this time, no crack was there to be the entrance. 

"I must say the growth of the Crystal itself is rather remarkable, yet in the same instance it can entirely mundane with the dimensions the crystal reflects. Infinite refraction is possible, while too an entire galaxy rests inside it." Hank mused as he looked over the crystal, finding the ratio of the facets of the crystal identical to the last time. 

"So, let me guess, all that techno-babble means yer impressed with the ol' hunk of rock yet don't know a damn thing about how they got in, or how to get them out?" Logan inquired as he leaned against the edge of the crystal smoking a cigar. 

"I am afraid so my feral cohort. I am entirely at a loss for how this might have happened." Hank replied as he ran a clawed hand over the facet where their guests were supposed to have vanished into. 

"Well, if that Jahf character is still kicking around in there, I bet that those two probably are at just as much a loss as ya are." Logan remarked as he got up and left Hank to his investigation. 

On the bridge of the ship, Charles sat with Lilandra as they watched the Shi'ar throne-world near on the view screen. Scott stood next to them, lost to the eternal struggle with finding the flaws with the last mission, and pondering contingencies for the next. Bishop sat at the weapons console, learning about the Shi'ar weaponry incase any future fights lay upon the horizon, while the others had taken to the recreational area of the ship. Suddenly the swish of a door announced the arrival of Logan. 

"Hank ain't got no clue about that hunk o' rock, and I'm about ready to say we just hit it with something big and hope it cracks again." Logan growled as he walked over to Scott. 

Scott looked down to the shorter man and gave a nod of recognition before returning his gaze back to the view screen. 

"Perhaps the scientists on the Shi'ar Throne-world might be able to find a way, it is their crystal after all." Scott remarked. 

"It's everyone's crystal bub, nexus of all realities. Betcha there's a universe out there that ain't even heard o' the Shi'ar." Logan remarked as he chewed on his cigar. 

"While you may be right Logan, in this Universe they have guarded the crystal for longer than Humanity has been around. I think they know what they're doing." Scott remarked. 

"Oh? Then why is it that this is the second time that we know of when they needed our help with the damn thing eh?" Logan asked as he looked up to Scott. 

Scott merely shrugged as he watched the view screen. Suddenly the red alert came to life as the lights dropped to a flashing red hue, while an annoying siren rang out. The X-men jumped to the stations they had been assigned, and Bishop looked quite eager to test out the might of the weapons onboard the Shi'ar flagship. Lilandra looked to the first officer of the ship, who was furiously typing away at a sensors console. While he was doing so, the other X-men joined them on the bridge. 

"It is Deathbird's ship! I thought she was killed!" The officer remarked as he identified the ship attacking them, when suddenly several more dropped out of wormholes. 

"Seven more ships just dropped out of Quantum-space, they're charging weapons!" The officer called out. 

"Shields at 78% from that hit, Deathbird was aiming for the deck with our Shield generator, it was damaged and is not at full capacity any longer. A direct hit by those ships might destroy us!" An alien at the damage console reported. 

"Helmsman, evasive maneuvers. Bishop, I hope your as good with this ships weapons as you are with your own, send back return fire at your will. Send out a distress call, we need the Throne-world fleet to our aid!" Lilandra cried out as she took to standing, the focal point of activity on the bridge. 

As the ship lurched away from the pursuing vessels, Bishop had let out a string of magnetic mines in the ships wake. As the mines attached to the magnetic fields of the ships, they drew in closer until they detonated, crippling two vessels, but leaving six more on their tail. 

"They're firing Empress! All hands brace for impact!" The helmsman called as the crew grabbed a hold on anything to steady them. 

Moments after, a blast rocked the ship, sending sparks flying from consoles and static on the view screen. 

"Shields are at 8% Empress, the generators are struggling to stay up, but there is no way they will survive another volley from that many vessels. What is your command?" The helmsman asked as he steered the ship away from laser fire. 

"Turn about and head straight for them, all power to frontal shields. Bishop, open fire with everything we have. Phoenix, it might be taxing, but any aid you can supply with your telekinetic ability would be greatly appreciated." Lilandra called out in vain a moment before another volley was sent at the ship, crippling it. 

Suddenly from the bridge, Xavier vanished in a transport energy signature, while a frantic cry came over the comlink stating that the M,Kraan Crystal had just vanished. 

A look of dread fell over Lilandra's face as she looked to the X-men and her crew. Crewmen burst into an explosion of activity as they worked to repair the ship, fearful at any moment they would be destroyed. 

"They're…leaving." The helmsman called out in disbelief. 

"Empress Lilandra, is all well with your vessel?" A voice asked over the ships transmitter picked up a transmission from the Throne-world fleet. 

"All is not well. My sister has taken my consort and the M,Kraan crystal!" Empress Lilandra called out. 

"They have gone into Quantum-space and are masking their signature, I am afraid we cannot track them." The voice replied in a sad tone. 

"Very well. Tow our ship to the Throne-world, we shall have to decide upon our course there." Lilandra replied in defeat.   
  


* * *

  
  


While inside the Crystal, all that had gone on about it had passed in the time inside taken for Jubilee to stir her cappuccino. Remy was just taking his seat and getting a light from Jahf, needing nicotine to calm his nerves after finding himself inside a crystal which on the outside took up enough space for a tank, yet on the inside appeared to be infinite. 

"So, who are you?" Jubilee asked as she looked to Jahf. 

"I am Jahf, blessed and cursed with being the guardian of the crystal." Jahf remarked as he took a sip of his coffee after resting his cigar in an ashtray. 

"Guardian of the Crystal?" Jubilee asked. 

"Yes, I take care of the place. Get to see everything that is going on too. Like right now while you just decided to stir your coffee, Charles Xavier has been kidnapped along with the crystal by Deathbird." Jahf remarked as he pulled up a view of the events. 

"Wait. Oh no. Crud. Growl." Jubilee grumbled as she looked to the play of events. 

"You guessed it kiddo. And I hate reruns, but I can't do anything. Right now Deathbird is rocketing across Quantum space to get Xavier to control the fate of that battle that cost Deathbird the Empire." Jahf remarked as he looked to the events. 

"De Professor? He won't do anyt'ing o' de sort. He would let dem kill him before he would let dat happen. He is an idealist. Stubborn." Remy remarked as he leaned back in his chair. 

"You seem to know the man well for having just met him." Jahf remarked with a wry grin. 

"Met him oui, but Remy follow de news. He kept tabs on de man who played at being human, yet was a Mutant hiding in plain sight. Dat man isn't going to let de lives of billions fall wit'out his own life first." Remy remarked as he revealed the truth of his observation of Xavier. 

"Indeed. But the Skrull who is going to copy him along with his abilities has no qualms about billions dying so long as in return the Skrull race gets acceptance into Deathbird's new Empire." Jahf remarked. 

"We have to stop them!" Jubilee yelled as she watched the view vanish. 

"It's already too late. It's done. But that's not to say there isn't help waiting for you on the other side. That chronological anomaly Bishop remembers this fateful mission and your part in it. Just like the last time. He spent twenty years in a world where Xavier had been killed and Apocalypse rose to power over the world." Jahf explained as he showed a view of the death of Xavier by the misguided hand of his own son. 

"How do we fix dis all?" Remy asked. 

"Travel back in time and stop it all from happening? As much as I hate reruns, that is about the only way I can think of it. The reality that held Deathbird affecting the past has become no more. You can only stop what was changed now, fight against her and let Lilandra prevail to the throne. If you wait a few more minutes, you should arrive at the proper time when Bishop has recreated a time machine to do so." Jahf remarked as he pulled out a pocket watch from seemingly nowhere and let it sway like a pendulum. 

"So, how do we get out of here?" Remy asked. 

"As your not taking a piece of the crystal this time round, you don't need to leave any fair trades behind. I'd suggest using the Exit." Jahf said with a chuckle as suddenly behind the pair a door with the letters 'W.C' on it appeared. 

"A water closet?" Jubilee asked. 

"Dat be more den a water closet P'tite, trust Remy on dis one. Just tell us when Jahf, my thanks for the hospitality." Remy said as he rose to his feet, pulling Jubilee to his side as he opened the door that housed a whirling vortex. 

"Stop by anytime Remy, I enjoy your company." Jahf said as he watched the watch. 

"Well, goodbye and bon voyage, get your butts through that door!" Jahf yelled at the last swing of the pocket watch. 

As the pair leapt through the water closet, Jubilee let a scream ring out over the vastness that they were traveling through, while Remy held her tight to his side as they tumbled. Finally at the end of the vortex, a flash of light signaled their arrival as they fell out into a field behind a warehouse. 

"Ow. Remind me to thank that guy for the warning next time." Jubilee remarked as she rubbed her head. 

"Eh? Remy hope der not be a next time P'tite. Now, where are we?" Remy remarked as he looked about the desolate field and up to the night sky. 

"Merde." Remy whispered as he looked up to the sky with a white-faced expression. 

Jubilee looked up and let out a stifled gasp. A massive ring ran across the night sky, one that had not been there when they last checked. Lights soared all about the night sky, possibly satellites or starships docking with the massive ring running about the earth. Suddenly their awe was halted as the whine of a plasma pistol could be heard directly from behind them. As they turned, they saw the face of Bishop, aged some ten years since they last recalled, but still as rugged and strong as ever. 

"Hey Terminator, ya want to point that thing at something else less someone gets hurt?" Jubilee asked with a wry grin on her face, charging up her paffs. 

Bishop stood frozen in place as he looked at them, fighting against the confusion of yet another timeline fighting in his mind. 

"It be us Bishop. We were in de M,Kraan Crystal when it all happened. Jahf sent us to help set t'ings right." Remy explained slowly, taking a step away from the man holding a plasma pistol aimed at his head. 

"Jahf?" Bishop asked flatly. 

"De Guardian of de M,Kraan Crystal." Remy explained. 

"To help?" Bishop asked. 

"Oui, he said you 'ad a time machine or somet'ing. Dat you were going to set t'ings right. We be here to help." Remy remarked, as he looked Bishop dead in the eyes, calling his hand. 

Bishop stared squarely into Remy's demon eyes, trying to find reason for all that had happened since that failed mission. As the whine of the charge fizzled away and the barrel dimmed, Remy knew that he believed them. Bishop holstered the pistol and waved them on. 

"I still need a power source for this thing, and that can only be gained at the Shi'ar stockyards in what is left of Manhattan. I don't know what it is with villains, but they lave turning that island into anything but the city it was." Bishop remarked with rare humor as he led them into the warehouse. 

"Eh? You be talking to de best thieves on dis side o' de galaxy. You need anyt'ing stolen, you talk to us." Remy remarked with a grin. 

"I thought you were the best thieves on Earth." Bishop stated. 

"Dat was until we stole de M,Kraan Crystal homme." Remy corrected. 

"I thought you got sucked into it and vanished for twelve years." Bishop remarked as he led them into a small sitting room, the walls covered in various weapons from the ages and from across the galaxy. 

"A momentary obstacle, we going ta get dat crystal for de lady friend of Xavier, you trust Remy on dat one. If we set all dis right, Deathbird is still going to steal it and try de whole t'ing over again." Remy remarked as he watched a light of recognition flare in Bishops faded eyes. 

"What? You're going to beat her to it or something?" Bishop asked with disbelief in his voice. 

"Oui." Remy said with a mad grin on his face. 

Bishop merely shrugged as he pulled out plans of the stockyard from a cabinet and sat down before a battered coffee table. Unfurling the map, he tacked down the edges with various conventional rounds of ammunition. 

"There is a scan for life-forms every twenty cycles, a cycle being the time it takes for the next orbital thrust of the station resting around the Earth to get the station back in proper orbit. This was Deathbird's revenge on the Earth for the X-men's interference. The tides of the planet went off the scales, destroying much of the coastlines of the earth, while massive ecological damage happened. Weather patterns changed too. Cities held by the Shi'ar were protected though, like New York, Toronto, Tokyo, and many other of the worlds leading cities. They wished to take the peak of civilization away from Humanity." Bishop explained as he let out a sigh. 

"Well, don't worry, we're gonna make sure that I've got all the best places to shop when we get back from this mission big guy." Jubilee said as she gave Bishop a reassuring pat on the hand. 

"Indeed. Anyways, I will need a fusion reactor from one of the shuttles used to travel to the space station from the surface. You will need to bring the entire vessel here, and I have a cloaking device for it to jam any forms of tracking the Shi'ar have. With that I shall be able to power this time machine of Forge's design and we can set history back on the proper track." Bishop explained as he pointed to an area on the map marked 'Shuttle Storage'. 

"Now, I am afraid that there is no way you can travel to the stockyard on any way other than foot. With the respective skill and prowess either of you possess, you will be able to elude any tracking." Bishop said as he pulled out another map from an end table and handed it to them. 

"That will lead you to the stockyard. I was going to make the journey myself, though with you two here now, it would be rather pointless. I shall remain here and hold the fort while you two get the power source." Bishop said as he let out a weary sigh. 

"K, so where is this stealth device thing for the shuttle?" Jubilee asked. 

"Your sitting on it." Bishop remarked as he looked to the backpack she had taken to using as a cushion on the crate she had seated herself on. 

"Oh. Sorry dude." Jubilee remarked as she stood up and checked on the cloaking device. 

"So, how long you t'ink it take us to get der and back?" Remy asked. 

"I would wager two and a half hours." Bishop remarked. 

"Eh? You want to put a wager on dat?" Remy said with a wry grin. 

"You do it in any less and I'll pay your bar tab when we get back to our proper timeline and back to Westchester." Bishop said as he cracked a grin. 

Remy reached across and shook the older man's hand a moment before he stood up and joined Jubilee. Jubilee threw the backpack over her shoulder as the two left, leaving Bishop to keep things on the home front safe. As they exited the warehouse, Jubilee pulled out a compass and got her sense of direction while Remy looked over the map. 

"It say we should travel due north 'till we see somet'ing dat looks like a giant squid head coming outta de horizon." Remy remarked as he looked to Jubilee, who seemed to be transfixed by something. 

"Hey Remy, what's about the size of a two story building, has lotsa teeth, and something between dog breath and raw sewage for it's body odor?" Jubilee asked in a meek voice. 

"Eh? Oh merde." Remy said as he looked up, recalling the last time Jubilee spoke in a riddle. 

Before them stood an odd beast standing upright and wearing a uniform of Imperial design. In his clawed hands a massive plasma rifle sat, and over his eyes a red visor rested. 

"Submit to the Imperial Forces of Deathbird or be destroyed as Traitors to the Empire." The beast growled out as it stared at the two. 

"P'tite, you got any ideas?" Remy asked as he looked to her. 

"Yeah, team up on this mofo and I don't mean by throwing punches!" Jubilee screamed as she threw plasma at the beast, while Remy dropped to the earth and grabbed a rock, charging it. 

"P'tite, I hope you didn't make does too strong as I don t'ink we want de entire Imperial forces looking for us!" Remy yelled as he threw the charged rock at the beast. 

At the last second Jubilee took a degree of control over her plasmoids she never used before, creating a spiraling vortex of them as she had them trail the rock. As the rock exploded on the beast, she willed them to form a makeshift sphere around the beast, shaping the explosion to direct the brunt of the explosion inwards. The excess of the blast knocked the two thieves to the ground, but as they rose to their feet, the beast lay unconscious on the ground, with it's breathing ragged. 

"Nice work P'tite." Remy said as he pulled Jubilee into a hug. 

"Thanks Gumbo, now lets get going. We got a shuttle to steal and I'm calling captain's chair." Jubilee said with an evil look in her eyes.   
  


* * *

  
  


The pair ran the rest of the way, making it to the stockyards in half an hour. As they looked to the massive wall before them, Jubilee let out a sigh. 

"So, how do we scale that thing? It looks like polished steel with no grips. And I don't see a door anywhere around on this side." Jubilee remarked as she looked at it. 

"P'tite, Remy wants you to concentrate real hard. De way you make your sparks is by detonating de air around your hands. I want you to detonate a hole in dat wall." Remy asked in a serious tone as he looked to Jubilee. 

"Your kidding right? Who told you that? Doctor Blue?" Jubilee asked only to receive a nod. 

"Remind me to shave him when we get his furred hide back. I have enough trouble trying to control the damn things when I get mad, as I'm sure that street in Paris found out. Now your trying to have me do something I didn't even know I was doing for the last six years?" Jubilee said as she looked to Remy. 

"Oui, it be de only way in P'tite. C'mon girl, Remy know you can do it if you put dat mind of yours to it." Remy whispered as he drew closer to her and gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. 

"Sure, just blow up the wall. Like I did when I didn't even know what happened in Paris? Like I could have killed you Remy! You want me to try that again when I don't even know what I'm doing!" Jubilee cried out as she took a few anger-ridden steps away. 

"C'mon P'tite. It be dey only way in so dat we can help Bishop set dis right. Look around; dis isn't a place worth livin'. T'ink of de billions of lives destroyed by dat madwoman Deathbird. We gotta do somet'ing about it; we gotta t'ink about someone other den ourselves for once. Dats all we been doing since life dealt us de slush hands." Remy said as he drew closer to Jubilee and pulled her into a hug. 

Jubilee looked up to him with tear-ridden eyes, confusion drifting about in their sapphire depths. 

"Remy, I don't want to loose you. I have no idea what I'm doing and if I loose control I might kill you, I couldn't live with that." Jubilee whispered in a meek voice. 

"Shh P'tite. Remy trust you. Remy trusted you wit his life since de day he met you. I know you can do dis girl. De X-men are countin' on us, and so is de rest of de world. Dey might not know it, but we can't fail dem now." Remy whispered as he brought his head down to her level. 

"I'm scared Remy." Jubilee whispered in a broken voice. 

"It's alright to be scared P'tite. We got thrown inta somet'ing we never wanted to be thrown inta. But if we didn't, den we would have been here when all dis came down, and we wouldn't be here right now with de way to set t'ings straight." Remy whispered and he hugged Jubilee tightly. 

Jubilee took a calming breath and stepped towards the wall, pulling free from Remy's hug. She sat down and got into a cross-legged position while she began to take even breaths. Remy watched as Jubilee meditated the way she did before a heist, ensuring that her stealth-power was working to the utmost degree. Her mental shields never faltered, but occasionally she might slip up for technological detection. 

Jubilee slowly called on her power, though instead of filling herself with the emotional charge that seemed to strengthen them, she let herself become calm and serene as she focused on where the plasma came from. After several minutes it was as if she could feel the air around her, beyond that of the breeze that blew across the fields. She then probed further, until she felt the cold metal of the wall. It was an obstruction, but it was as the air was, at her whim. She tried to force her powers to extend to the wall, but could only hear the odd sputter of sparks near her, and the flashes of light as plasmoids came into existence. She needed the strength she had dared not call upon. 

She forced the memories of the wrongs of her life to come to her, passing before her eyes while the shouts flickered in the background. The death of her parents, the shuttling from foster home to orphanage that never seemed to end, the way she had to fight for any respect on the street, to be treated as anything beyond some mere child. It never seemed to end, and she just wanted to scream. Just as she was about to, a face appeared before her and she knew it was Remy's. A look of concern was in his eyes as he stared into her sapphire ones. She drew back to reality and saw that the wall before her was glowing, shifting through the colours of the rainbow as raw plasma had replaced the metal of the wall. With a gesture she sent the plasma out to the field where it vanished in a fizzle of sparkles. 

"Remy knew you could do it P'tite." Remy whispered as he pulled her to her feet and let her through the hole. 

"Just…don't make me do that again anytime soon. Tiring." Jubilee sputtered as she leaned into Remy as the walked through the stockyard. 

"Remy promise." He whispered back as he wrapped an arm about her to better support her tired form. 

After several more minutes they found the unguarded shuttles, and with the aid of their thieving skills and Jubilee's own natural affinity for technology, they were able to bypass the lockout on the controls. With the cloaking device enabled, they flew the shuttle out and arrived back at Bishops, who had opened the landing area of the warehouse. 

"Nice garage door opener ya got der Bishop." Remy said as he exited the shuttle with Jubilee in tow. 

"This factory used to be a shuttle factory, is why I chose it, along with its proximity to the stockyard. Now we haven't a moment to waste." Bishop remarked as he attacked a power cable to the engine of the shuttle. 

"What time you got Bishop?" Remy asked. 

"Time enough that I'll owe you a night of drinking if we pull this off." Bishop said as he waved them to follow. 

He led them to a large room with a platform in the middle. A hazy aura was beginning to fill the center of the room, while the machinery sparkled and shined with alien technology. 

"Ok, the portal shall be ready in one minute, one way ticket. We either do this or we die, as there is no coming back. I've got a small nuclear device on this end to vaporize this place." Bishop remarked gravely as he worked a console. 

The two thieves looked to one another, taking a calming breath each as the prepared for whatever it was that waited for them on the other side, death or glory, salvation for humanity or three more tombstones to sit atop a lonely hillside. Whatever it was, it was better than living where they now found themselves, on a conquered world ravaged by the Shi'ar.   
  
  
  
  
  
Go to the next chapter...   
  



	10. Wheels within wheels

Disclaimer : Marvel owns the X-men, I'm just borrowing them.   
  
  
Explosive Combination   
  
  
Chapter Ten : Wheels Within Wheels 

  
  


"We ready to do dis mon ami?" Remy asked as he cast a glance to Bishop. 

"The power levels are at their maximum and the coordinates are set. We are ready, I just have to set the nuclear device so that the facility shall be destroyed lest the Shi'ar follow us and prevent our actions." Bishop remarked as he walked over to a small suitcase on a table. 

As he reached it, a sudden explosion rocked the building. Dust and debris fell from the ceiling while old beams fell down. Remy and Jubilee dodged the falling beams, while Bishop blasted them away with biocharges. 

"What was that?" Jubilee asked as she rose. 

"Imperial Traitors, Surrender or be destroyed!" A voice called out from outside the building. 

"Go now! You must! I shall stay here and detonate the bomb manually! You must prevail or all is lost!" Bishop yelled as he threw a backpack to Remy. 

"You're not coming with us?" Jubilee asked. 

"I have to ensure that the bomb goes off with no interference, the timer cannot be changed now. I will have to hold them off for the minute of the countdown. If I can manage to get to the portal in time I shall, but go now!" Bishop explained as he took up guard around the bomb. 

"C'mon P'tite! We got to go now! Dis be de only chance to set t'ings right!" Remy said as he tugged on Jubilee's arm and pulled her through the aura. 

"I hate this part!" Jubilee screamed while her voice carried across the void of time and space, distorted and drawn out as the pair fell.   
  


* * *

  
  


Meanwhile the X-men found themselves trapped by Deathbird in a horrific realm where tendrils of intelligent plant life confined them. No matter what effort they exerted, the vines held tight or healed just as quickly as they were cut. 

"Kythri's Bloody Claws?" Deathbird screamed as a glowing portal opened up before the vinery. 

Jubilee and Remy tumbled out and flipped to their feet, looking about and finding their bearings. While none recognized them, they all too well recognized many who were lying imprisoned and complacent. 

"Yo Remy, isn't that the bird brained biatch we're here to stop?" Jubilee asked as she threw a bolt of focused plasmoids at Deathbird, sending her flying back. 

"Oui P'tite, but I t'ink we be in over our head!" Remy yelled as Deathbird leapt to her feet and drew her spear. 

"Interfering youngling and you hairless ape! You shall die!" Deathbird screamed as she charged. 

Jubilee and Remy both drew their Bo staffs and with a twirl, had them extended and ready. Deathbird struck at Remy with her talons, causing Remy to flip back to avoid the hit, while slashing away at Jubilee with the spear. 

"Argh! That's it!" Jubilee screamed as the spear ran down her calf, drawing a gash in its stead. 

Jubilee spun around on her good leg and slammed the end of the Bo staff into Deathbird's head, sending the present Empress tumbling. As she spun the staff around, plasmoids danced around the shaft of it and focused at the end. With impact into Deathbird's chest she detonated them, adding to the damage. 

Stumbling away, Jubilee pulled closer to Logan who was stretching against his bonds. 

"Ya miss us furball?" Jubilee asked as she paffed the vine, breaking it and freeing Logan. 

"Don't know who ya are kid, as I'd recognize yer scent if I had met ya before." Logan remarked as he lunged at Deathbird. 

The Empress stumbled to her feet only to be attacked by Logan. As he slashed at her, she grabbed his arm and threw him into a wall with her superior strength. With the distraction Remy threw a fistful of charged throwing knives from a waist sheath he had found in the backpack Bishop had given them. The Empress stumbled back from the attack and fled. 

"You two free the rest, I'm going after Deathbird!" Logan yelled as he ran after the fleeing Empress. 

Remy and Jubilee looked to one another and shrugged, quickly freeing the other's and severely wishing they had even the faintest idea of what was going on. Just as they took to freeing the X-men, an odd band of rogues burst into the room and raised their weapons to them. 

"Surrender Imperial Dogs!" A large green, amphibious man snarled out. 

The pairs response was to throw plasma and charged cards at the band of rogues, sending them flying back down the hall they came from, while the X-men stared at them in shock. 

"I 'ear de words 'Surrender' and 'Imperial' in one more sentence and Remy is going to charge de whole freaking place!" Remy yelled back down the hall while Jubilee started to free the shocked X-men. 

"Hey Remy, I don't see Skunky here, or any of the other guys." Jubilee said as she freed the last X-man with a burst of plasma. 

Suddenly from the corridor a team of Imperial guards approached, lead by Gladiator. From the other hall the Starjammers were slowly beginning to stir once more, while in the middle of it all the X-men and their future allies stood their ground. 

"Hey Remy, I think I heard that guy yell 'Surrender Imperial Traitors'." Jubilee remarked with a feral grin as she looked to Remy, his gaze cold. 

"P'tite, what say we show dem dat was no idle threat, non?" Remy remarked as he pulled a fistful of daggers and began to charge them while Jubilee took to filling the corridor full of plasmoids of varying intensity. 

"I would ask you to Surrender, homme! De P'tite just filled de hall you are in with plasmoids dat don react well with dese daggers. You wanna test your luck, non?" Remy yelled down the corridor. 

"We are the Imperial Guards of the Shi'ar Empire! We do not take to threats! In the name of the Empress Attack!" Gladiator yelled back as the mob approached. 

"I warned dem, non?" Remy said with a sigh as he sent the blades flying. 

"I would say get down now!" Remy yelled as he tackled Jubilee and covered her from the blast, while the other X-men followed suit. 

As the first blade struck an errant plasmoids, the devastating chain reaction began where the plasma broke down and began reaching out and detonating whatever molecules it could reach. The energy created ripped through the hallway and into the vinery, twisting the support beams of the ship. As the dust settled, Jubilee and Remy rose to their feet and looked down the hall, finding the Imperial guards unconscious. The X-men joined them and looked down the hallway, letting out shocked gasps. 

"By the goddess…" Storm whispered as she looked down. 

"Ach, ye took out the entire Imperial guard with one attack…" Sean exclaimed as he took a step closer. 

From behind the Starjammers and their guest slowly arrived and looked down the hallway. They were more than impressed, but quickly moved to subdue the guards. Suddenly a pain gripped snarl echoed throughout the ship, and the X-men and their future guests took off running to find out what it was. Remy and Jubilee fell behind by about ten paces. 

"Hey Remy, Bish didn't make it…" Jubilee whispered as she looked up to him, sadness evident in her eyes. 

"I know P'tite. But not'ing else came through too. He did what he had to. Now we do what we 'ave to, non? For Bishop and all de others." Remy whispered back, taking Jubilee's hand in his own and giving it a reassuring squeeze. 

Jubilee let a silent prayer to the fates above, promising that she wouldn't fail him and all the others on this. Remy had been more than right she now realized, that they had been only thinking of themselves this entire time. She had imagined what the outcome might have been if there had been any hero's that night when her parents had been senselessly killed. Remy could feel her grip growing weak in his hand and looked down to find his 'P'tite' with tears in her eyes. Stopping, he pulled her to his chest and looked down into her glistening sapphire eyes. 

"What de matter P'tite?" Remy asked as he brushed an errant strand of hair from her eyes. 

"I…I was just thinking what you said back there at the wall. How we've been only thinking about ourselves this entire time because we got dealt slush hands. I mean…I never wanted to be a hero or anything when all this started. Just wanted to get that hunk of rock to prove that you and I were the best damn thieves Earth had. But…somewhere in between…it hit the fan, big time." Jubilee whispered as she looked up to Remy, a single tear spilling from the sapphire depths of her eyes. 

Remy looked down to her and brushed away the tear with a gentle brush of his thumb as he cradled her face in his hands. Reaching down and giving Jubilee a kiss on the forehead, he looked back into her eyes. 

"I know P'tite. Remy wanted de same t'ing when all dis started. But den de stakes of de game changed. Rules changed, heck girl, we changed. It opened our eyes to all de t'ings going on around us dat we could 'ave helped. Now be de time to pay up t'ose debts, non?" Remy whispered as he looked down to Jubilee. 

Jubilee hugged Remy and took a step back, taking in a calming breath as she looked around, finding the hallway empty. Casting a glance ahead, she cold see a group of people nearing, with someone held carefully in their arms. As the group of X-men approached, they could see that it was Logan who was carried in the arms, with no sigh of Deathbird anywhere. 

"What 'appened?" Remy asked as he took a step towards the group, looking down to Logan. 

"We don't know. We found him like this outside an escape pod hatch. I fear to give this diagnosis at the moment, but it looks like he's…brain-dead." Forge remarked as he looked down to his longtime ally. 

Jubilee and Remy cast a knowing glance to one another, letting out a sigh afterwards. Suddenly from behind the Starjammers rejoined them with a man in Shi'ar battle armor. The man walked up to Logan and placed a hand to his forehead, letting out a shocked gasp. Taking a step back, he looked to the group and slowly took off his helmet, revealing the face of Charles Xavier. 

"Professor!" Storm exclaimed as she looked to the X-men's mentor and founder, but more than that, the founder of their cause, of human and mutant co-existence. 

"I am afraid Deathbird must have used either a form of telepathy or a device, but I am afraid to say that Logan is…indeed…brain-dead." Charles said in a flat voice. 

Storms eyes began to fill with tears at the man who had saved her from the Shadow King and become a friend and more, having suffered such a grievous wound. Rage filled her eyes then as electricity crackled about her form. 

"Deathbird shall pay for this." Ororo said in a flat voice as she stormed off, needing to find solitude to regain her calm lest the power of the elements echo her own rage. 

"Might I inquire who you two are?" Charles asked as he looked to the pair. 

"Eh? Non, you might not, just t'ink of us as friends. You can call her Spark, while me, Ace." Remy remarked as he gave a smirk to Jubilee. 

"Ace and Spark?" Charles inquired, trying to delve into their minds but only finding that Remy's thoughts were like quicksilver, unable to grasp even a stray thought, while Jubilee's stealth-power formed impenetrable psi shields. 

"Oui." Remy said in a flat voice as he felt the Professor trying to delve into his mind, finding it an odd move for the man he had thought to abhor such practices. 

"Well then, Ace and Spark. I am Professor Charles Xavier and these are the X-men and the Starjammers. For the moment we shall return to the Throne-world that we might recuperate and have proper treatment for Logan begun, then the hunt for Deathbird shall begin." Charles remarked with a wave of his arm, leading the group away.   
  


* * *

  
  


Back in the future reality where Deathbird was weaving her plot to attain victory in this battle, Charles had been confined in the Matrix allowing the Skrull to copy his physiology and his mental powers. The Skrull duplicate was strapped into the Cerebro unit while beams of psi energy drifted into the M,Kraan Crystal. 

"You have subdued the Warrior?" Deathbird asked as she drew near the Skrull. 

"Yes. His mind has been shattered. He is no more of a threat, and most possibly the Skrull of that era shall claim to heal him while replacing him with a duplicate." The Skrull Xavier reported as he took his leave of the machine to rest his powers. 

"Excellent." Deathbird remarked as she turned to the imprisoned Xavier. 

"Oh why Charles. Soon your beloved Lilandra shall be nothing more than dust in the cosmos, while Earth shall be invaded by the Shi'ar Empire. See, you cannot move against the true Empress of the Shi'ar Empire!" Deathbird yelled as she drew closer to Charles, staring into his eyes and reveling in the torment she saw there. 

"A billion deaths Charles, a billion deaths will be held upon your head. Think of it, it would not be possible if it were not for that wonderful mind of yours and Cerebro. Does that not do you proud to know that you are the key to the enslavement of Humanity?" Deathbird remarked in a gloating tone, gently running a hand down his cheek. 

"I do believe this is were you say 'My X-men will stop you!', but what you do not know is that your X-men are being destroyed as we speak. In fact, once this is done, they shall have been dead or enslaved for years now. And those that remain on Earth at that period will be slain when the invasion fleet is sent to conquer your pathetic little planet." Deathbird explained slowly with venom in her voice. 

Drawing away, Deathbird took pleasure in knowing the mental anguish she was causing for her captive victim. She only wished he could send his barbed remarks back, but alas that could not be had with the Skrull Matrix having need of the man.   
  


* * *

  
  


Back in the past, Remy and Jubilee stood in the palace of the Shi'ar Empire, watching as Lilandra took to the thrown with the defeat of Deathbird. Even as they watched this now, Imperial forces sought her out across the Empire. 

"So Ace, like, what had ya so bugged out about the Prof?" Jubilee asked as she leaned in to Remy. 

"He was trying to get into Remy's mind P'tite. De Professor I know abhor dat practice. He would never do it wit'out asking first. Dat got me wondering about de man. What say we go find out what is up wit him, non?" Remy asked as he whispered down to Jubilee. 

"Sure thing Ace." Jubilee whispered back with a mocking tone in her voice. 

"Follow me Spark." Remy whispered back, matching the tone. 

As the pair skulked through the depths of the palace, they soon found a grate with the voice of Charles Xavier drifting through. As they drew closer, they could see Charles down there with Gladiator holding Logan's limp body in his arms. 

"I feel the tampering of Xavier on this mind Gladiator, but how can that be with the man entrapped in the Matrix?" Charles asked as he looked to the puppet Imperial guard. 

Charles slowly shook his head in defeat to the mystery before him. 

"The Matrix can create another Logan, one who shall be at the control of our every whim. My only concern are the two interlopers, 'Ace and Spark'. Obviously aliases, but I cannot find answers in their minds. Ace's mind is like quicksilver, while the younglings is as if the entire Imperial guard protect it from attack. Send out guards to keep eyes on these two, we must know their motives in this." Charles remarked as he took Logan from Gladiators arms. 

"At your command Warlord." Gladiator remarked as he stalked off to issue the commands. 

As Gladiator stalked up the shadowy corridor, he did not notice the two lurking in the shadows of the vaulted ceiling. After he had left, the two leapt to the ground with feline grace. 

"Hey Ace, I think your right. Xavier is acting like a mondo villain right now." Jubilee whispered as she looked into Remy's demon eyes. 

"Oui, and what be dis Matrix dat he be talking about eh? You up to seeing if we can't find a library around here to go look for de answers in, non?" Remy whispered back to Jubilee as he cast a glance into the dungeon. 

"Sure thing, lets go. We don't got much time since they'll be looking for us soon." Jubilee remarked. 

"Skrull." A feminine voice whispered from the shadows. 

The pair whirled about to find Ororo standing behind them, having followed their retreat from the party. 

"Skrull?" Remy asked as he looked to Ororo. 

"A race of doppelgangers. They create exact duplicates by ensnaring the originals in a Matrix. Lilandra is too a powerful telepath, able to reach across the cosmos to seek our aid with Xavier. For her not to know of this deceit by the Skrull lead me to believe that she is either a Skrull herself or under the mental sway of the Xavier Skrull." Ororo explained. 

"Eh? A Skrull? Dat why de Professor be acting de way he is?" Remy asked as he looked to Ororo. 

"That is my only assumption. A plot for Imperial control is afoot. We must find out who is involved and what their motives are." Ororo remarked in a faint voice, ushering the two to follow her. 

As the trio of thieves left, a shadowy figure emerged from the embrace of the inky blackness that had disguised her. Psyloke looked up after the trio, a dreadful look on her face. 

"So, the rogues have found out about the ploy of the Skrull. The leader must be notified to this at once." Psyloke mused as she ran off down the stairs.   
  
  
Go to the next chapter...   
  
  



	11. The Abyss

Disclaimer : Marvel owns the X-men, I'm just borrowing them.   
  
  
Explosive Combination   
  
  
Chapter Eleven : The Abyss 

  
  


Darkness, complete and utter, enveloping and stifling, drowning out all sense of reality as she groped about as she tried to find her way out of the abysmal void. The only thing more unnerving than the darkness was the silence, but then it was never truly silent if she listened, for the sound of her own breath was faint as it was swallowed by the void. The walls of wherever Jubilee found herself were cold and precise, feeling like worked marble or granite. Even her paffs did little for the darkness, swallowed and absorbed with only leaving her form expose with the faintest glow against the ebony floor. She didn't know where she was, nor what happened after Remy and her had left with Ororo to find the other X-men. All she knew was that there were three powers working against the Empress Lilandra, and if nothing could be done soon, a future as dark as the void she found herself in would be forged from the ashes of the rightful timeline. 

Remy awoke with his head throbbing, and as he tried to raise a hand to ease the pain, he found that they were shackled. Looking about, he found himself in a dungeon not unlike the one he had eavesdropped on when the revelation of the Skrull plot was exposed. Ororo too had found out, and along with Jubilee they had hoped to find the other X-men to warn them. But it came too little too late as Psyloke attacked with Imperial guards. Off in the corner he could see Ororo laying limply upon a mat, her hair matted with blood and dirt from the fight. Looking further he couldn't see Jubilee anywhere, his fears catching the better of him as the thoughts of what Ororo had told them of the Skrull came back to him. 

"Merde, if dey hurt her, dey going to have de devil ta deal with." Remy growled as he charged the chain on his shackles, destroying it and freeing his arms from behind his back. 

Walking over to Ororo, he gave her a gentle nudge to bring her back to the conscious world. A groan came as her eyes fluttered open, drawing tight against the little light that the cell had. Rising to a sitting position, she looked about and leveled her gaze on Remy. 

"I would take it we did not win the battle?" Ororo asked in a rhetorical tone, merely earning a nod from Remy. 

Ororo looked about the cell further, looking for weaknesses and other things that might be useful to their escape, then she noticed the lack of something that nagged at her throbbing mind. Focusing past the pain of the headache she was suffering from, she realized that the girl was missing, Spark he had called her. As she opened her mouth, Remy merely gave a shake of his head as he caught her train of thought. 

"Gone. Don know where too. If dey hurt her, dey have da devil ta deal with, I promised dat." Remy said in a tired voice as he rose from his sitting position and helped Ororo to her feet. 

"I fear that Betsy has been taken by the Skrull, for I have never seen such rage and anger in her, nor would she double-cross us in this manner." Ororo stated, clearing her friends actions from the battle prior. 

"Der was a reason I wasn't showing dem what I 'ad in de battle, fearing dis might happen." Remy said with a sly grin as he walked up to the cell door and charge the lock. 

With a fizzle and a loud snap, the lock was blown. Repeating the trick on the hinges, the door soon fell from the frame, caught by Remy to stop the loud clattering smash that would have echoed down the corridors. Taking Ororo by her hand, the two figures stalked out into the darkness of the dungeons, intent on finding out what had become of Jubilee, while too the X-men.   
  


* * *

  
  


Stairs now, rising for lord knows how high into the void. Jubilee crawled along them, fearing a tumble from the height she had climbed since finding them, each step forward taken tentatively as she groped about in the darkness to ensure no pitfalls. A faint glow flickered off in the farthest point of the void, infinitely small against the vastness of the darkness that surrounded her. As the only guidance in the otherwise featureless void, she pressed on and hoped for either rescue or release from this place. 

"Eh Stormy, as de P'tite would say, what has about fifty feet, bad breath, and 'n even worse temperament?" Remy inquired as he peeked about the corner. 

"I haven't a clue, 'Ace'." Ororo replied, annoyance in her voice with the new pet name she had just acquired. 

Remy gave his head a nod for her to look over the corner, and as she peeked over, she saw twenty-five guards standing about a vast door rising eighty feet into the vaulted ceiling of the dungeon. 

"What you t'inking dey keeping in der?" Remy asked as he looked to Ororo. 

"Shall we find out 'Ace'?" Ororo asked, receiving a nod from Remy. 

Stepping out into the hallway, Ororo raised her arms high into the sky, calling down the fury of gale force winds and the freezing depths of the Artic Tundra. The guards ran at her, weapons drawn, but as a barrage of charged rocks flew into them they fell back and tumbled against the wind. Frost and snow covered their metal armor, all of them now either unconscious or bordering on hypothermia. Remy and Ororo walked up to the door and pushed it open, finding the ease of the task strange for the size of the door. Looking up to the behemoth before them, they suddenly wished they hadn't let their curiosity guide their actions.   
  


* * *

  
  


Jubilee had lost track of time as she climbed the stairs, having long since broken into a mad dash towards the light as her mind tittered on despair. Her paffs guided the way, keeping watch for every change in the direction of the stairs. The light grew closer with every step, and finally as she found the landing of the stairs, it was almost blinding in the intensity of it. It stood like a portal in the darkness, with the landing ending in a perilous edge at which the light sat. Too pass through it, merely to find out it was nothing but a ball of light would mean death, but if the risk taken proved it was a portal, freedom could be awaiting her on the other side. If there was one thing Remy had taught her over their time together, it was patience, and this would require time to decide the risk fully. 

The behemoth looked down to the pair, straining against the shackles that held it about the wrists, ankles and throat. Furred and fanged, it looked like a creature out of mythology, yet here it stood imprisoned on the Imperial Throne-world. 

"You know anyt'ing about dis t'ing?" Remy asked as he turned to Ororo. 

"I have not the faintest idea my friend. Goddess forgive me, but at this moment we do need a distraction for the guards that we might be able to find the others and warn them of the plot." Ororo remarked as she raised her hands skyward, sending lightning bolts shattering through the skylight of the prison, destroying the shackles about the behemoth. 

The giant creature looked down to them gratefully, but then a snarl fell over his face as a squad of guards advanced upon the cell. Panic clear on their expressions, the beast lunged at them from the cell as it attacked his oppressors. 

"I feel sorry for dem Stormy, dey don know dat dey working for de Skrull. But alas, dey too don know we be on de same side. Lets get out of here." Remy said as he looked skyward and gave a smile to Ororo. 

With a nod of her head and a chanting to the elements, the pair soon rose upon winds beckoned by Ororo, rising through the skylight and to freedom. They had to find the other X-men and warn them, and they also had to find their respective better halves. Logan was still missing and comatose, while Jubilee was missing entirely with no idea of her whereabouts.   
  


* * *

  
  


Jubilee stood upon the edge, looking to the light hovering perilously over the edge of the landing. If she were to leap into it, she would have to do it right the first time as only one attempt could be made. Then suddenly the hairs on the back of her neck rose, as a feeling of someone watching her overtook her. Spinning about, she saw a menacing figure in the flicking light of the orb of pure white light. In her haste and shock, a misstep cost Jubilee her footing as she began to tumble over the edge. A shrill scream was swallowed by the darkness, cut short as a strong hand grabbed her by the arm. Looking up with tears in her eye, despair having finally washed over her; gray eyes peered at her through the darkness with concern in their depths. As the figure pulled her back to the edge, she could see a familiar silhouette about this figure, and as her eyes adjusted to the dim light she found Logan to be sitting with her on the edge. 

"You okay kid?" Logan asked in a gruff tone. 

"Peachy, only on the other side of the universe in some abysmal void that you nearly had me fall into by sneaking up on me!" Jubilee screamed in the darkness that consumed the noise. 

"Sorry kid. Just about as lost as you are. One minute I'm tracking down Deathbird, next thing I know it feels like I was turned inside out, finding myself in this damn place." Logan said as he waved his arm about the void. 

"Whoa, back up. Last thing you remember is chasing Deathbird and then waking up here?" Jubilee asked only to receive a nod from a curious Logan. 

"Dude, someone fried your brain. Oh man oh man. That mind-witch biatch was with those guards. One minute I'm fighting with Re…err…Ace and Storm, next minute it feels like I was coming down from a four week sugar high." Jubilee remarked as she glanced back to the light. 

"So fur ball, you thinking what I'm thinking?" Jubilee asked as she looked back to Logan. 

"Hell Darlin', anything is better than this place." Logan said as he rose to his feet, offering a hand to Jubilee. 

"Damn skippy." Jubilee said as she took the hand and hefted herself to her feet. 

The pair ran back to the edge of the landing, slipping off their shoes for better grip on the otherwise featureless surface. Breaking into an all out dash for the edge, they leapt through the void like falling angels, clearing the void and passing through the light.   
  


* * *

  
  


Disorientation passed over them as light filled their eyes. Looking about, they awoke to the shocked faces of Betsy and Professor Charles Xavier, while an alien dignitary that Jubilee recalled from her time at the grand ball stood next to Lilandra. A second glance about their surroundings soon alerted them to the fact that they both were quite naked, while in webbing Charles and Betsy hung like prey captured by a spider. 

Turning back to the group standing before her, Jubilee threw a volley of plasmoids at the doppelgangers, charged by the anger and embarrassment of the current situation. The Skrulls fell back from the attack, only to be attacked close quarters by an enraged Logan. Leaving the man to do what he appeared to be so good at, Jubilee took to freeing the captives from the webbing. As Charles fell from the webbing, the Skrull who had taken his form reverted to its original state. 

"Behind you child!" Xavier yelled as he pointed behind her. 

Jubilee spun to see the alien dignitary charging at her, and with a swift kick Jubilee floored him and spun about. A second barrage of plasmoids freed the imprisoned dignitary along with Betsy, leaving the Skrull reverting back to their original forms. 

"Impertinent Youngling! You shall pay for this!" The largest of the Skrulls yelled as he got to his feet and charged at her once more. 

But this time a bolt of purple psonic energy found home with his temple as he toppled to the ground in a screaming heap. From behind him, Betsy, likely nude, glared down to the man with much anger in her eyes. Betsy then walked over and helped her one time and once more mentor to his feet. 

"Whoa, like, aren't you a cripple?" Jubilee asked as Xavier stood before her, all in the room doing their utmost best to keep their eyes firmly locked on the faces of the others. 

"A bit of Shi'ar technology child." Charles said as he walked over to Lilandra, probing her mind and undoing the damage the Skrull had done. 

"Beloved?" Lilandra asked as she looked about, casting disgusted looks to the Skrull. 

"A long story my love, shall you call your ship and have us teleported, we must return to the Throne-world to stop the unrest which must be erupting in your absence." Charles remarked, giving his love a kiss. 

"Whoa, I'm not getting teleported anywhere until I get some clothing!" Jubilee shrieked, covering herself, finally having time for such modesties with the battle finished. 

"Patience child, all shall be taken care of upon the Flag ship. Guardsmen, stay here and ensure that these ones do not impose a further threat upon the Empire" Lilandra remarked. 

Their forms slowly dissolved from sight at the command of Lilandra, their forms reappearing within the private quarters of the Empress of the Shi'ar Empire. Servants quickly brought dress and clothing to the guests and consort of the Empress, finding Jubilee to be stubborn as they attempted to dress her in the dress of a noble. 

"I can dress myself! I'm not three years old!" Jubilee shrieked as she tore a dress away from one of the servants and stormed off to another room. 

Charles gave Logan and Betsy a glance as Jubilee left, while Lilandra held a smile upon her lips at the finicky behavior. 

"Might you explain to me the child Logan?" Charles asked while a servant dressed him in the style of clothing he had taken to liking while in the Empire. 

"Wish I could Chuck. Her and some Cajun fella fell outta a portal when Deathbird had us all trapped after we got sent here by Lilna Cheney. I chased after Deathbird only to get turn inside out and get lost in some mind landscape ya would know more about than I would. Found the kid in there, got out, and found ourselves where we found ya. End o' story." Logan explained while a woman clothed him. 

"Hmm, I shall have to speak with these two later, but now we must get to the Throne-world. There may be more Skrull imposters there working the Empire as a puppet." Charles said as he followed Lilandra to the bridge of the Flagship.   
  


* * *

  
  


Meanwhile back upon the Throne-world the X-men and Remy found themselves surrounded by a rather large force of Imperial forces. Several more lay upon the ground unconscious and beaten, having been the last force to have had attacked the X-men in the corner they had taken refuge in. 

"Ach, they just keep coming. Maybe we best surrender and await Charles's return." Sean suggested a moment before letting lose a sonic blast on an advancing troop. 

"What good is dat gonna do mon ami? Charles is a Skrull, we'd be finding ourselves in de dungeon in no time." Remy remarked as he threw a fistful of charged pebbles at another advancing troop. 

"Well laddie, we're risking life and limb with our backs in this corner. Unless ye have any better ideas, it does neah look too promising." Sean quipped back. 

"Wind! Scatter these offenders like the fallen leaves!" Storm yelled as she beckoned the winds to repel the advancing forces. 

Suddenly out of the cloud-enshrouded sky, a large ship emerged like a whale surfacing. The troops stopped their attack, while the X-men looked to the ship in all it's might, hovering over the battlefield like the hand of a Greek god. Then suddenly a light flickered between the forces, with familiar silhouettes flickering into existence. Charles stood with Lilandra, while Jubilee and Logan stood next to one another with Betsy at their side. 

"X-men, cease your attack. The Skrull threat has been dealt with thanks to the aid of young Spark and Logan." Charles called out. 

"Imperial Guards, cease fire! Do you wish it be said that this is how the Empire treats its guests and allies?" Lilandra yelled out, earning compliance from the troops. 

Remy and Ororo exchanged glances of disbelief, all too ready to believe it to be another plot in the Skrull arsenal. Locking eyes with Jubilee, he walked forward until he could look into their sapphire depths. She exchanged a quizzical look at first, until she recognized the look that Remy held in his own demon eyes. It was a look she had seen when he didn't believe what it was before him, doubt and fear swirling within them. 

"Remy, it's me." Jubilee said as she took his hands, looking into his eyes with all the love she had grown for him over their time together. 

Remy cracked a smile as he looked into her eyes, gently rubbing his thumb over her hands a moment before he pulled her into a warm hug. 

"Remy was worried dat dey might 'ave hurt ya girl." Remy whispered into her ear as either held the other tightly. 

"I can't say the last thing I remember was all that pleasant, but I'm here now and that's all that matters." Jubilee whispered back as she pulled away. 

Across from them, the scene was acted out anew, with a flare of the romantic as Logan and Ororo embraced one another. Charles blinked as he looked at the pair, not having known how close they had grown as of recent. A smile fell across his face at the act, finding a warm feeling at the sight of two of his friends finding love and peace with one another.   
  


* * *

  
  


A banquet and ball later, Charles found himself sitting in the private study he had gained for himself with his time on the Throne-world with the two enigmatic guests that had come to their rescue. Jubilee still a little lightheaded from the wine she had been allowed, a treat from Remy, sat with her head resting against Remy's shoulder while they sat on a sofa. Charles took to a leather armchair, his hands arched together as he considered the pair. 

"Firstly I must say I am eternally grateful for the aid you have provided." Charles said while pausing as he looked to the pair. 

"T'ink not'ing of it. Just somet'ing de P'tite and I 'ad to do." Remy said as he brushed a stray lock of hair from Jubilee's face. 

"What he said." Jubilee whispered, finding it tasking to remain awake. 

"Might I inquire of the true motives behind your aid?" Charles asked. 

Remy looked to Charles, then down to Jubilee. He could only wonder what the outcome of the future be if the X-men knew of them that night when they fled from the mansion. Letting out a sigh, he could feel his mind growing fatigued and longing for a good rest after all the action. 

"Lets just say dat you'll be meeting up wit us in a few years. Be best if you do dat mind control t'ing and 'ave all de other X-men forget about us. I'm sure Jahf is having a laugh at us right, eh P'tite?" Remy remarked, looking down to the now slumbering Jubilee. 

"Jahf? The Guardian of the M'Kraan Crystal?" Charles inquired. 

"Merde, let de cat outta de bag on dat one. Oui, Jahf boy had us helping out another person you'll be meeting soon enough. We still 'ave some loose ends to take care of. Anyway you can get your amour to let de P'tite and I have a look at de Crystal?" Remy asked as he slouched down in the sofa. 

"Of course. But I think that can wait for the morning, don't you? I'll have some servants come about to arrange your quarters for you. Good might Mr. Ace is it?" Charles asked with a chuckle. 

"Eh? Well, as I'm sure you can keep a secret. Remy LeBeau at your service, while dis is Jubilee, Jubilation Lee by birth but if ya call her dat you be asking for a face-full of sparks." Remy chuckled as he gave a nod. 

"I will speak with the X-men and gain their consent to lock the memories of this day until we meet again. But for now Mr. LeBeau, I bid you a good night." Charles said as he rose, walking across and giving the other man a shake of the hand before he left to retire for the evening. 

Looking down to Jubilee, Remy smiled fondly at her as she slumbered like an angel. While awake she was often a fury to no end, excitable and irritable. But as she slept, all that faded away to the petite child she was, innocent and caring. 

"Good night my P'tite Ange. Pleasant dreams." Remy whispered as he waited for the servants.   
  
  
Go to the next chapter...   
  



	12. Sacrifices

Disclaimer : Marvel owns the X-men, I'm just borrowing them.   
  
  
Explosive Combination   
  
  
Chapter 12 : Sacrifices 

  
  
  


Xavier sat helpless, the all to familiar feeling of the Matrix surrounding his core, restraining and inhibiting any attempt at resistance or escape. He watched in horror as the Skrull took his form, and with it, the vast power that came with his special mutation. Charles Xavier, founder of the X-men and Imperial consort to the Empress of the Shi'ar Empire possessed perhaps the most powerful mind upon the planet Earth, an unfathomed stronghold of psychic potential. He at a young age had learned the responsibility of such a gift, and dedicated his life to using his power to bring humanity and mutants together. Now he sat and watched as the Skrull stole all that power, with only perverse intentions in the beings twisted mind. 

"Don't you see the irony in it all Charles? That your mind shall be the very undoing of the X-men's aid all those years ago? That it shall be you who shall deal the deathblow to your beloved Lilandra? Oh I do love the very thought of it, for it all would not be possible if it were not for that wonderful quirk of genetics that created you." Deathbird hissed as she looked to the imprisoned man before her. 

Turning, she watched as the Skrull doppelganger of Charles Xavier took his place in the duplicated Cerebro unit at the heart of the monstrous machinery surrounding the M,Kraan Crystal. As the machine powered up, energy arched about the crystal as pure and raw psonic energy rippled from the enhanced mind. Time opened up before the being, and as he delved into the past to find the first mind on the long list of those whom were to be disposed of, a look of shock fell over his face at what he saw. Time had been changed, and a wave rippled across the known continuum, atop the crest two beings stared back at him from across the divide. 

Warning lights began to flash as sirens let out their wails of protest. Attendants and scientists took to their stations, finding out what the alarm was of, and as they analyzed the readouts, their faces took on the same dread that befell the Skrull before them. 

"A wave of corrections is passing along the continuum, adjusting time and space due to a change in the time space." The lead scientist announced above the buzz of activity. 

"A wave of correction? But we have not even begun the process? Will the shields be ready?" Another scientist inquired as her fingers danced across a console, preparing the displacement shielding that was to save them from the alterations to the time stream. 

"I haven't a clue I'm afraid. The magnitude of the change is marginal, yet something is very strange about it. A time space abnormality is present in every time stream that the computer calculates." The scientist explained while his eyes were glued to a console. 

Suddenly a shock hit the shielding, shaking the entire ship. The space occupied by the ship having changed, yet the shielding preventing the change from happening. Molecules out of place in the current time stream created feedback in the shielding as the time stream adjusted accordingly. Finally as the alarms ceased and the shaking subsided, the crew looked to one another in silence. 

"Report!" Deathbird shrieked as she advanced upon the lead scientist. 

"I beg forgiveness my Empress, but I must wait for the computer to calculate the changes while too drawing information from the Shi'ar databanks outside the field." The scientist said in a sub-servant tone as he avoided eye contact with the possible Empress. 

Deathbird stood over him, looking to the console in the alien tongue, reading slowly. Nothing appeared to have changed as far as the records had displayed, yet the computer calculated a difference from the records. The abnormalities in the time stream were still there, yet they were outside normal time and space. 

"Explain this." Deathbird said in a flat voice as she pointed to the abnormalities in the time space continuum. 

"It is as if two beings not present in the last timeline are now present. I have not any explanation for this aside from perhaps a quantum paradox or perhaps interference from future events. Time travel works both ways Empress." The scientist remarked as he looked to the abnormality. 

Meanwhile throughout this, the Skrull still held the same look of fear in his stolen eyes as his mind passed through the time stream, staring into the fate of past events with the eyes of others. He knew the two beings were growing closer, and held no good intentions for them. With every failed attempt to lock upon their minds his fear grew. 

"Empress!" The Skrull cried out in the stolen voice of Charles Xavier. 

Deathbird spun around to the doppelganger with a look of vexation. Her eyes grew wide at the site before her as the M,Kraan crystal took on an aura. 

"Empress! The records do not show these two, but with the borrowed memories of your past self I do know that they were present when the X-men defeated you the last time. Not the time we know of as the events had changed with the success of a parallel time streams mission by our parallel selves." The Skrull explained. 

"Which two?" Deathbird asked as the aura grew to blinding levels, causing all to retreat from the crystal. 

Suddenly the sound like glass shards falling upon a stone floor echoed through the cargo bay holding the crystal, and as the aura faded two figures could be seen, neither looking impressed with what they beheld. 

"Miss us?" Remy asked as he threw a barrage of charged cards at the machinery, once again disabling it. 

The scream of the Skrull doppelganger could be heard as the Cerebro unit pushed his stolen powers to their limits. Psonic energy arched about him as his mind was released unto the astral plane. 

"You!" Deathbird screeched as she launched at Remy, talons ready to draw blood. 

Remy had his Bo staff drawn within a heartbeat, throwing the Shi'ar warrior at the crystal. The guards drew about them, but with a gesture Jubilee had the Matrix imprisoning Xavier destroyed with a blast of her plasmoids. As Charles fell to the floor, he was free once more, as were the powers of his mind. 

~ Cease your attacks this instance! ~ Charles commanded as the guards stopped where they stood. 

"Fools! Attack!" Deathbird cried out as she stumbled to her feet, talons readied once more. 

The guards stood their ground, their minds imprisoned as Xavier once was. Remy and Jubilee drew about Deathbird. Remy gave a twirl of his Bo staff in response to the snarl on Deathbird's face, while Jubilee readied as her hands glowered with energy. 

"They will not obey you anymore Deathbird, surrender." Charles said as he drew near as he dragged himself across the floor. 

"Never! Never again shall I surrender! I am the rightful heir of the Shi'ar Empire!" Deathbird screamed as she launched herself at Xavier, plowing past Remy and Jubilee. 

Just as she was on top of him, ready to deal a fatal blow to the founder of the X-men, the ship lurched and the combatants were thrown clear. The lights fell to red hues as sirens whined. Voices over the intercom told of the Imperial Flagship bearing down on them with an armada of Imperial ships of the various races of the Empire. The forces of Deathbird and those of Lilandra stood face to face in all their combined might, ion cannons charged and torpedo banks readied. 

"This is the Empress of the Shi'ar Empire, Lilandra Neramani. By Imperial decree, I order your surrender." The voice of Lilandra beckoned from the hijacked comlink of the ships. 

"Helmsman, fire at will!" Deathbird screeched as she picked up Xavier by his throat, holding off her aggressors with a well-placed talon to his throat. 

Weapons fire echoed through the vastness of the ship as either armada opened fire upon one another. But within that room, within that space of a heartbeat, time and all else in the universe centered upon the threat of a single man's life, held in the grip of a psychotic noble of a Empire not their own. Remy and Jubilee looked to one another, hesitant as to what to do. 

"Surrender now Youngling and you hairless ape and I shall spare the life of the consort of my sister." Deathbird said as she pressed a talon into Xavier's throat, drawing a faint drop of blood. 

Anger grew in Jubilee's eyes as she watched a man who had spent his life for the benefits of everyday mutants, mutants like she was when she was nothing more than a scared child on the streets of Beverly Hills. He represented the first good thing she had seen in humanity, unselfish love for his people and the hope that some day humans and mutants could coexist. The words that Remy had spoken that time ago came back to her, those years in the future, yet only seeming like days in the past. The words Remy told her back at the wall came back. Time to think of someone other than herself. 

With a feral scream she launched herself at Deathbird with all the acrobatic grace she could muster, sending Xavier free and landing a blow square in the temple, sending the Shi'ar warrior stumbling back. But as Xavier fell, Deathbird lashed out at her attacker, tearing up Jubilee's chest as a splatter of blood was sent against the wall. Jubilee fell limply to the ground, spasms of shock setting in from the force of the blood. Silence fell over the room as Deathbird took her ground once more, but it was a silence broken by an inhuman scream as Remy attacked Deathbird. 

Blows charged with kinetic energy lashed out at Deathbird with the fury of a demon, flicking in and out of the visible range of movement as Deathbird was thrown back by fists and small explosions where the fists charged pieces of her body armor. A glow overtook the two combatants as Deathbird's armor shimmered with an aura of released kinetic energy. Vainly she struggled against the assault, but she was outmatched. A final heart wrenching scream ripped through the cargo bay as Remy threw a fist against her chest, releasing the kinetic energy as Deathbird's armor erupted. Falling limply to the ground, the Shi'ar warrior knew her day of defeat. 

~ Helmsman, your Empress is defeated. Cease your armada's attack upon the Imperial forces now! ~ Xavier commanded as he cradled the limp form of Jubilee in his arms, vainly trying to stop the flow of blood from her wounds. 

As Remy fell to his knees, he looked about, as he grew aware of his surroundings once more. A moment of rage incarnate had taken over him with the sight of Jubilee's blood splattering against the wall. Within a heartbeat he was to her side, clutching her to his chest, as her weak breath broke free of her battered form. As the sound of weapons fire ceased, and the shields dropped, the trio vanished in the energy signature of a Shi'ar transport. As they reappeared upon the Shi'ar Flagship, medical aids of the utmost skilled in the Galaxy stood waiting, Lilandra having picked up upon the distress in the minds of those upon the Flagship of Deathbird's rebel forces. 

"Quickly! Let me see the youngling! We must tend to those wounds now lest she die!" A doctor cried out in shock of the sight before her. 

Remy relieved his precious burden to the doctor, blood staining his body armor in her stead. Staring as one would their own flesh and blood dying, he sat where he was with a lost look in his eyes, every prayer he knew being silently said as his lips passed a whisper to the fates above that she live, that he would give anything that she might live. So lost to the moment that he didn't even notice as a strand of rosary found its way into his grip, his hands running along the beads of a crystal known only to one crystal in the universe as he passed along prayers to the fates. So lost that he didn't notice the addition of a new doctor to the bedside who took charge of the operation that would save Jubilee's life. 

Meanwhile Jahf smiled fondly as he watched, knowing that whatever it was Remy gave to the crystal, it must have been worth it. Rarely did the crystal do such a favor, but then again this one seemed to find the ace in the hole when the chips were down, a gambit much like his namesake. The doctor who took charge was not of this universe, though he was one of the most skilled in any universe. Taking a puff of his cigar, he turned away from the view and took to savoring a good scotch on the rocks as he awaited the next visitor to his burden and joy, his guardianship of the most important meeting place in any Universe.   
  
  


* * *

  
  
  


Remy awoke to a gentle whisper in his ear, stirring his mind from the darkness it clung to. As he opened his eyes to the darkened medical bay, he found himself staring into a set of green eyes filled with admiration and concern. Slowly he pulled the face from the haze of his mind, and the name that it belonged to. 

"Morning Rogue. How is de P'tite?" Remy asked as his voice cracked with thirst. 

"She'll be fine. The Shi'ar know a thing or two about medicine, let me tell ya now sugah. Now, they also know a thing or two about breakfast, lets get ya something ta eat now, eh?" Rogue whispered as she looked to Remy. 

Slowly Remy stumbled out of the bed he did not recall climbing into, dusting off his jacket and looking at the horrid reminder of the events the night prior. Rogue, after noticing the stained armor, took Remy to get a shower and a change of clothes first. After the shower and change of clothing, he joined her in her trek to breakfast, finding the other X-men sitting in a private dinning hall with a reinforced wall of windows giving a view of the Shi'ar Throne-world in all its glory. 

Settling for toast and a coffee, Remy took to the window where Ororo stood admiring the view. The pair stood enjoying the silence of the moment. Then with a glance to her eyes, Remy knew something was upon her mind. 

"Somet'ing bothering you Chere?" Remy asked as he set his coffee down on the railing of the wall. 

Ororo took in a calming breath as she faced Remy, drawing in strength against the shock of the revelation that had been delivered to the X-men the night prior with the return of their mentor. 

"I remember you 'Ace'." Ororo whispered in a voice half amused, yet half in disbelief. 

Remy gave a grim nod as he looked to her, waiting for the other foot to fall in this stride of this Titan of revelations. 

"You and her, you did all this for us and we barely even knew you." Ororo whispered, struggling to maintain the composure she was known for. 

Remy gave a nod, not knowing what to say to her at this moment in which she had found that that they had met for what to her had been years ago, yet for him had been the passage of days. Having risked all to travel about time and set the timeline upon its proper path, and now having finally returned to save the very founder and mentor of the X-men, only to have his better half nearly fall to the hands of a psychotic. 

"Why?" Ororo asked, still in disbelief as the pieces of the puzzle set in place, two rogues that they X-men had merely met like passing mists in the night, having risked all for something they knew nothing about. 

"Seemed de right t'ing ta do Chere." Remy whispered as he took her hands, steadying them. 

"She saved Logan." Ororo whispered. 

Remy merely gave a nod to her, finding it all that need be said. Taking in a calming breath, Ororo gave him a nod in return before she left, seeking out the side of her beloved Logan. Alone again, Remy found his gaze lost to the world before him, a pang in his chest as he longed to be home once more in his own place, Jubilee at his side and not in a hospital bed nearly torn to shreds. Not so lost to the moment this time, he cast a curious glance down to the rosary beads he found in his hands, working over them in the way he would in prayer. 

As he drew the beads close, he recognized the material with a thieves eye, and he almost swore he could see Jahf smirking back at him across the void.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
